Warring Love
by Inuwarrior3
Summary: A war has raged between demons and humans for a hundred years. Inuyasha and Kagome are on opposing sides, but soon find themselves joined together as a crazed king and a night together causes the two to fight against all.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- Don't own Inuyasha

Chapter 1

He waited patiently on a hill over looking a dirt road. Trees lined it on both sides. The armor that ran across his right arm and the breastplate on his chestglisten in the sun's light as his ears twitched back and forth, searching for a sound. His nose sniffed the scents of the warm autumn air. Nothing. He became frustrated with each passing second as the thing he was searching for couldn't be found. His fist clenched, his patience began to dwindle away. A brisk wind passed him carrying the scent he had been looking for. He smirked.

The sudden sound of rustling leaves caught his attention. His hand flew to the sword that rested on his hip. A familiar scent brushed passed his nose and he relaxed though his hand still rested on his sword.

"Inuyasha you should learn to relax." A figure said as it walked out of the brush.

"Maybe you should learn not to sneak up on people." Inuyasha replied. He looked back down at the road to find the location of where the scent came from. "I take it, Kouga, that since you came to bother me that you caught the scent as well?"

Kouga nodded." Yeah. The human convoy should be here soon." he walked over to where Inuyasha stood. "I'm actually surprised your half demon nose caught the scent from this far away." Kouga voice held a slight tone of dislike for Inuyasha.

Inuyasha growled lowly. "Kouga, I maybe a half demon but I can easily kill you." He threatened his hand tighting around his sword. Kouga hand grasped his own sword.

The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to make his move. They ran several scenarios of what could happen in the fight in their minds. The mistakes they could make or the number of times they would get hit. The amount of strength and agility it would take to gain the upper hand. Over and over they thought about how the battle would go and how the consequences of their moves would affect it.

As they thought about this they didn't notice that another figure had joined them with a knife aimed at both of them. The figure threw his arm forward, flinging the two knives at the two. Sensing danger their demonic instincts quickly took over and the two jumped out of the way.

"You know I'm surprised that the two of you didn't notice I was here." The figure spoke. "If I had been a human I could have killed you two before you would've even noticed that I was here." The figure walked out of the brush with a staff in his hand.

"Miroku you are human remember?" Inuyasha said pointing out the obvious.

He nodded. "True, but I'm on your side remember?"

"Good thing you are two otherwise you'd already be dead." Kouga said as he took his hand off his sword.

The sound of clattering armor drew their attention to the dirt road. They saw that there were two lines of human footman walking along each side of ten wagons carrying several boxes and crates full of supplies, each being pulled by two horses. A row of archers walked behind them with notched arrows in their bows. The three smiled at the stupidity of them. Thinking that wearing armor was going to protect them from their claws, fangs, and a very sharp staff.

"I think it's time to get to work." Inuyasha said. He jumped off the hill, with Miroku and Kouga behind him.

The wind blew quickly passed him as he soared down. He flexed his clawed hands tightlycausing them to snap and crack. He could feel his heart began to pick up its pace as the anticipation of battle passed through his mind. His muscles tensed. He could feel the urge to cut through human flesh pulsate through his veins. He got his wish.

A clawed hand ripped open an unsuspecting footman's armored back. Blood splattered all over Inuyasha as he jumped above the dying footman and came down on another one, thrusting his hand through his chest.

Five footmen drew their swords and charged him. Recklessly they slashed at him giving him the easy chance of dodging them. He tore through their bodies as they made stupid mistakes that cost them their lives.

Grabbing one of the soldiers's swinging arms he twisted the arm in direction it was not supposed to go and shoved the blade into his chest. He turned to look at the archers and found them aiming their arrows at him. Using the footman as a shield he ran toward them. Their arrows pieced the footman's body, but didn't have enough strength to go through it. As he drew closer the archers started to panic and shot wildly. Their arrows were now going in erratic paths. Some completely off target. Some of the archers dropped their bows and ran.

Inuyasha threw the body at the archers when he got close enough before tearing into them. He cut and slashed the archers into mangled figures that hardly looked human. Blood poured out onto the ground through open wounds. The ground became a pool of red. Red like the way his demonic blood wanted it.

Kouga kicked one of the footmen's head causing it whiplash, hard. The footmen dropped where he stood. Kouga turned around kicking another footman into a wagon. A piece of the wagon protruded out from the soldier's heart. He ran toward another footman, dodged the blade that came at him, and kicked the footman's nose into his brain. He then picked up the soldier's sword and cut the throat out of another one. Blood spewed out onto his unarmored skin. His clothes turned into a tinted brown and red.

He continued to slash through the remaining footman and two archers in his way, blood spayed onto him like rain. In only a few seconds he slashed down every soldier in his way. He chucked the sword aside to and checked on Miroku and Inuyasha. Seeing only that Inuyasha was finished with his number, but Miroku only had a few left.

Miroku threw his knives into the heart of two footmen. He ran toward the remaining four, blocking the sword slashes with his staff and pierced one of them through the stomach with the end of it. The other three came at him again. Two of them slashing at the same time, but he ducked and stabbed another in the neck.

He moved to the left dodging another slash. As he dodged the slash he smacked the footman in the head with his staff, and then stabbing him in the back.

He finished the last of the soldier that was around him, delivering a knife into his heart. He looked at Kouga and Inuyasha to find them done as well. He saw that both were covered in blood, but he knew well enough that the blood was not theirs. The two often had a habit of going over board and liked to have blood everywhere. Usually causing blood to splatter all over them. Just one of the many reasons he was glad to be on their side.

"Since you two are done butchering what do you say we get these supplies back home?" He said as he walked toward the wagons. He searched through the supplies only looking for those things of great worth since they had so few hands to carry the supplies home. As he searched through the boxes and crates he found something interesting. "Hey you two get over here and look at this!"

"What is it?" Inuyasha asked as he walked up to him. Inuyasha shook his head like a dog attempting to get the wet blood out of his hair.

Kouga's eye twitched as some of the blood splattered onto his face. He attempted to sock Inuyasha in the face, but Inuyasha ducked and leaped toward Miroku. He growled and jumped after him.

Miroku picked up the object and found it to be a pink orb. "No idea but it looks pretty valuable." Miroku suddenly felt a weird feeling shoot through him. He looked down at the orb and felt something radiate off it, but then it disappeared. "You two feel that?"

"Feel what?" Kouga replied wiping the drying blood off his face.

"Never mind" He mumbled. _I could've sworn I felt some kind of energy pulsate off this._ He shook his head. _I've got to be imagining things. _He put the orb into a crate along with several different items and put it under his arm. "Let's find some more stuff and get out of here. There is going to be a patrol coming through here soon."

The three searched through the remaining wagons, packing in whatever was important. After they packed everything they tore up whatever was left to make sure if the forgot anything important that it didn't fall back into human hands.

"Let's go." Miroku said as he ran away. The other two following him.

An hour later

Four knights, six footmen, and two figures walked up to the dirt road.

The two figures looked at the battlefield in horror. They couldn't believe the amount of blood that covered the ground. They walked toward some of the less mangled bodies to see if anyone was alive, but they knew it was futile with that much carnage. They turned to look at the wagons.

"Go check out the wagons. See what's missing." One of the figures said, pointing to the footmen. "Sango, who do you think did this?"

"Kagome I really don't know. I hope that we don't find out." Sango replied. She walked toward the wagons with Kagome following her.

"Ma'am! The orb is gone!" One of the footmen yelled caring an empty crate. The two girls gasped.

"The king is not going to like this." Kagome spoke to herself. She and the entire patrol took off and headed toward to the kingdom.

Scene Change

"Miroku why did you pack women's clothing?" Inuyasha asked, holding up a women's dress. "Are you a cross dresser or are you living another life you haven't told us about?"

The three sat in a little hut inside the Western Kingdom rummaging through the stolen supplies, deciding what to give to the king and what to keep for themselves.

Miroku nodded his head. "I was going to give the dress to my future wife." He replied causing Inuyasha to scoff.

"Are you planning on having her be the size of a toothpick?" He looked at the dress. "Cause only a toothpick could fit into this dress. Not only that, but since you're such a pervert you'll never be able to hold onto a woman unless you stop." Miroku just shrugged.

"At least he's shown that he's interested in women." Kouga butted in, with intent to get Inuyasha angry.

Inuyasha glared at him. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that I've never seen you show any interest in women. You haven't ever tried to flirt with one. At least that I've seen." Kouga said causing Miroku to raise a suspicious eyebrow at him.

Miroku nodded. "I agree. I don't believe I've ever seen you with a woman."

Inuyasha jumped up in anger. "Just because I've never been with a woman you assume I'm gay!' He yelled. His fist clenched tightly. "Well if you need to know I'm not gay!" He all but screamed into their ears.

"How do we know that?" Kouga asked.

Inuyasha growled angrily. "Whatever. Believe what you want. At least I don't treat women like they're a buffet line." He stormed out of the hut but not before knocking the two in the head. Loosening a couple teeth. "I'm not gay!" He yelled before walking into the forest.

Miroku rubbed the soar spot on his head. "Did he have to hit so hard?"

"Pathetic human. You should learn how to take pain." Kouga said as if he didn't even feel it even though there was a constant throb beating through his head. The comment caused Miroku to smack him with his staff. "Ow! What are you doing you stupid monk!"

"Now who should learn to take pain?" Miroku said laughing. Kouga mumbled something that sounded like "I'm going to kill you" but Miroku ignored it. "What do you think this orb is?" He decided to change the subject before he died.

Kouga shrugged. "Beats the heck out of me. Why don't we crack it open and see if there is anything inside?"

Miroku shook his head. "This thing might hold considerable value and to break it could ruin it." Kouga rolled his eyes. "Not only that but I think that there is some kind of power inside this orb."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean that when I picked it up that I sensed something in it." Kouga raised an eyebrow. "It was only there for a second then it was gone. I don't know what it is." Miroku closed his eyes. He tried to remember the feeling but was having a hard time. Well that and Kouga was poking his head to try to get his attention. "Do you mind? I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Why don't we just get Kanna to identify it?" Kouga suggested.

Miroku nodded. "Right. Let's go."

The two walked into Kanna's hut with the orb in tow.

"Lady Kanna? We have a human orb we need you to identify." Miroku said.

Kanna walked toward the two. "Set it onto the floor." Miroku did as he was told, and he set the orb down. Kanna walked up to it and scanned it with her mirror. The Orb suddenly pulsated and she was pushed backwards.

"Lady Kanna you all right?" Kouga asked.

"Yes, but the orb is shielded. It will take me some time to break it. When I do though I shall contact you."

"Okay Lady Kanna." Miroku said. He walked out the door along with Kouga.

Scene Change

Kagome quickly walked through the white hallways of the King's castle. She didn't know how he was going to react and she hoped that he wouldn't be angry. Especially at her since she was the one delivering the message. She pushed opened the iron doors of the king's throne room and walked up to his throne.

"Ah Lady Kagome. What is you are here for?" He inquired.

"Milord I'm afraid I have some bad news to deliver. The orb is gone. The demons stole it. They slaughtered the convoy guarding it and took it." She said.

His eyes widened. "Did you say that they captured the orb?" Kagome nodded. "We must get that orb back no matter the cost!" He yelled. His fist slammed into the arm of his throne causing Kagome to jump. "Lady Kagome I want you Sango and her brother, Kohaku, to sneak into the Western Lands tomorrow at dawn and get that orb back!"

Kagome shook her head. "Milord that is suicide. You can't expect the three of us come back alive do you? We'll be out numbered by to many demons to count." She protested.

"Lady Kagome that is an order from your king. You must obey it or you will be hung." The king stared at her with anger in his eyes.

Kagome nearly took a step back. She had known the king for years and he thought of her as a daughter. Not only that but he had never hung or threatened to hang anyone before. Nor had she seen the anger that was welling up in his eyes. He never even killed a traitor and now he was willing to hang somebody he was close to just because she didn't want to go onto a suicide mission. What had happened to the king? Now she had no choice but to go.

"Milord, if I may ask. Why is the orb so important that you will send your servants into a place of uncertain death?"

"Lady Kagome you know that we have been in a war with the demons for over 100 years." Kagome nodded. "You also know that a priestess's energy is extremely effective against demons." She nodded again, but didn't know what that had to do with the orb. "Well we have been working on a way to harness a priestess's energy into an object that would, when touched by a demon, explode. Releasing purifying energy that would kill the demon that touched and any around it."

Kagome eyes widened. "I see milord. This is an important task. We will do it with no objections."

The king nodded. "Go now."

Kagome bowed and walked out of the throne room somewhat disturbed about the information she had just received. She didn't know why but she had a feeling that something wasn't right about what the king was doing. Not only that, but she had forgotten to ask what happened to the priestesses when they gave up their energy. She had a feeling that it was bad when they did.

Sango awaited Kagome outside the castle walls, since only the people that the king trusted could enter the castle to talk privately. "What did the king say?" She asked as Kagome came out of the castle.

"You, me, and your brother Kohaku are to leave for the Western Lands at dawn." She said sadly.

"What!" Sango yelled. "That's suicide!"

Kagome smiled sadly. "That's what I told him, but he said unless we do that we will be hanged." She watched Sango's fist clench. "I know how you feel but there is nothing we can do. We should prepare and later tonight have our maybe last girl's night out."

Nightfall

Inuyasha angrily trudged through the black forest. Scolding himself for making the stupid mistake of forgetting the night was the night of the new moon. "I can't believe I forgot about this. I can't even find my way back home without my sense of smell." He said to himself. As he walked the sound of a bustling town caught the attention of his human ears. He walked toward the sound hoping that it was his home, but as he walked out of the forest he found it was a human town. He was about to turn back when something caught his eye. He saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

He didn't know what it was, but he felt a weird feeling towards the girl. _What's wrong with me? She's human._ He didn't know why but he got a sudden urge to follow her, even though his mind said not to his heart pushed him after her.

Kagome had absolutely no idea where she was or where Sango was. All she knew was that they had walked into a crowd of people and then Sango suddenly disappeared. She wasn't worried about her after all Sango was a demon slayer, but she on the other hand was just an unarmed high archer of the army who anybody had an advantage over when at close range not to mention unarmed.

As she walked through the crowd of people she had a sudden wave of uneasiness and she could feel her body go on alert as if someone was following her. She looked behind her, but found know one following her. That still didn't put the feeling to rest. Even though it was against her better judgment she continued to look for Sango, but the feeling grew stronger the deeper she got into the crowd of people. She picked up her pace and desperately tried to find Sango or the path home. Looking behind her she found a man following her. She did the only thing she could think of. She ran. The man quickly walked after her.

She looked back again and found the guy still going after, and her she picked up her pace. She ran as fast as she could for several minutes until she was confident she lost him. Slowing down to a walk she decided to walk home and meet Sango in the morning. She was confident that she had lost him, yet she still continued to look over her shoulder. As she rounded a corner she ran into somebody's chest.

"Sorry." She said apologetically to the man. The man looked down at her, smiled evilly her causing her to take a step back.

"Thanks for stopping her." A voice appeared behind her. She looked back to find the guy who was following her behind her.

"No problem." The guy looked up and down her body as if it was an object. "I can see why you followed her. She's really nice."

Kagome looked at the two in horror. She looked at the two guys and found that they were cutting her off from going anywhere.

The two took a step forward causing her to shrink to the wall. They continued to step forward until they were in arms length of her. As one of them tried to touch her, but her body reacted on instinct kicking him were it hurts. The guy fell over and she used the chance to escape or would've if the other guy hadn't caught her.

"You're not going anywhere. Especially not after that." The statement caused Kagome to struggle and scream. The guy had a hard time controlling her as she furiously tried to escape. The adrenaline pumped through her veins but the guy had too much strength on her. He also had her in way that I made it hard for her to move. The guy put his hand on her jaw so that she couldn't open it without hurting herself.

"You are going to pay for that you little witch." The other man said as he struggled to get to his feet. The fear in Kagome's eyes was clearly visible as she tried to get loose. It seemed to grow every passing moment. The guy pulled his arm back and punched her in her stomach, hard enough for her to nearly black out. The guy was about to hit her again but something hit his head causing him to stop. He looked behind him. "Who threw that?"

"I did." Kagome turned her eyes to look at a black haired Inuyasha. "You should let her go especially since she doesn't deserve anything your were about to do to her."

"Stay out of this you little whelp. Mind your own business!" The man yelled.

"I'm afraid this is my business. Now let her go right now. I won't say it again." He threatened, anger flooding his voice.

"Whatever kid. It's your funeral."

The man ran at Inuyasha taking several swings at him. He easily dodged each swing, frustrating the man. The man became frantic with his punches. So much so that he over swung giving Inuyasha an easy knock out hit to the stomach.

Inuyasha looked at the other man daring him to go at him. The man obliged. He took several swings at Inuyasha but on one swing grabbed the man' arm and twisted it in a way that it was not meant to go causing the bone to snap. The man laid down in agony over his broken arm. Inuyasha walked over to Kagome who was now on the ground staring at him.

"You okay?" All he got was a nod. He offered his hand to her and she gratefully took it. "Do you know how to get home?" She nodded. "Will you be okay on your own?"

She shook her head. He sighed. "Do you know where you live?"

"Just follow me." She said quietly. Inuyasha began to follow her.

He looked at her and found that she wore the badge of a high archer across her left arm. _How the heck did a high archer of the army get caught off guard by a couple of mere thugs? _He wondered. Pulling up beside her he looked at her face, noticing that she had beautiful eyes causing him to take pause in his step.

He then continued to follow her until he saw that they came to pathway that led to a small wooden house. As they neared the house he grabbed her arm causing her to look at him. "Hey are you sure that you're alright?" He said a little tougher than he wanted.

She scowled at him. "Would you be alright if somebody walked up to you and tried to do who knows what to you?" She yelled. Inuyasha took a step back from her sudden outburst.

"Well I would've fought back!" He replied.

"How can you fight back when you're pinned to some guy while the other is hitting you in the stomach!" She screamed with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hey wait. Don't cry." Inuyasha said as he saw the tears fill her eyes. He felt regret about the things he said. He didn't mean it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. Come on let's just get you inside." He really hated it when girls cry. Lucky for him Kagome obliged.

"I'm sorry for my outburst." Kagome quietly said as she got to her door. "I should've been thanking you instead of yelling at you. I'm sorry." She bowed her head at him as a sign if forgiveness.

He tilted her chin up to him. "You have nothing that needs forgiving." He let her chin go. "You going to be alright?"

"Yeah."

The two sat in silence for a few seconds before Inuyasha broke it. "I should probably get going." He turned to walk away, but Kagome grabbed his arm.

"Wait. Don't go. I could use some company." She let his arm go and he stared into her eyes. They were begging him to stay.

Inuyasha fought a three sided battle. His mind telling him to go to stay away, but his heart telling him to stay while the girl's eyes begged him to stay. He fought the battle while looking into her eyes, and found that as he did he no longer heard his mind telling him no. "Okay, I'll stay." The girl smiled at him. "One question though. How do you know that you can trust me?"

"I can see it in your eyes. Something in them tells me that you won't do anything to me. And that I can trust you." She said as she continued to stare in his eyes for a few seconds. She then turned away from him. "Come on let's get something to eat." She stepped aside to let Inuyasha in before going in herself, the door closing gently behind her.

**I apologize if this is going to fast I'm just not full of ideas right now. Please review and constructive criticism is appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: No own inu

Inuyasha stared at the steaming bowl of soup with suspicion. He looked over at Kagome to find her slurping it down. She looked up at him and was confused as to why he wasn't eating.

"Is it not cooked enough?" she asked while wiping her mouth.

Inuyasha shook his head. "What is this?" Kagome looked at him like oddly.

"You've never had ramen before?"

"No, am I supposed to?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"It's just odd. Try some."

Inuyasha looked back down at his soup or ramen as it was now called, and slowly lifted the bowl up to his mouth. He took a small taste of it and let it run down his throat. He soon found himself chugging the entire bowl. Never before had he ever tasted something so good.

He slammed the bowl on the table. "Hey you know this stuff is pretty good. Got anymore?" He asked practically begging, but not quite.

Kagome smiled at him before getting up and refilling his bowl. As she set it back down he lunged for it causing her to laugh at him.

"What's so funny?" He asked as he continued to stuff his face.

She smiled at him again. "Nothing it's just I've never seen anyone enjoy my cooking so much. Nor have I ever seen anyone enjoy ramen so much either."

"Well that's very weird. You'd think everybody would enjoy this stuff." He said with food still in his mouth. He set the bowl back down on the table. "More?"

She shook her head as she grabbed his bowl. "You know you're going to eat me out of house and home at this rate." A look of sadness passed through her eyes as she set the bowl down on the table. "Though it's not like it's going to matter anymore." She said quietly.

This caused him to stop and look at her. "Why?"

"Cause my King." King was said with a tone of dislike and disrespect, holding no more trust or love in it. "Has sent me and my two friends on a suicide mission into the Western Lands." Inuyasha's eyes widened. "I know. Some king uh? And tonight is my last night of living."

Inuyasha sat up angrily. "What's wrong with you!' He yelled.

Kagome looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you make it sound like you're never going to come back! Like you're just giving up!" He yelled.

"What else am I supposed to think? I'm going to be outnumbered by a huge number of demons and we can't possible take them all! There is no way we're going to come back alive, if at all." Some how those words cut Inuyasha. He couldn't tell whether it was by the sadness of her voice or the fact that it was true, all he knew was that they in a way hurt him.

"All I'm saying is that you can't give up before you've even tried. Only the weak and cowardly do that. You can't give up just because you think something is hard. You have at least try and believe that you'll succeed otherwise you won't have any chance at all."

"But what if I can't believe that? What if the odds are stacked against you so much that you can't even begin to believe?" She looked down at her hands before looking back up at him, sadness and fear were mixed in her eyes. "What if you know that even if you believe that you won't be able to do whatever you need to do because it's impossible?"

"Then you don't really believe. Cause if you did you wouldn't have any doubt in your heart and the thing you'd be believing in would happen, no matter the odds. Don't give up. That is the absolutely worst thing you can do. Cause when you give up everything goes crashing down. Trust me I know." He looked into eyes, hoping to see at least a tiny glimmer of hope and that maybe she would come back alive. He didn't know why but he really did want her to.

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because I didn't just save your butt for you to get killed the next day." He said as he smirked. "Now promise me that you'll have some hope."

"That's a hard promise to make since I don't think tha-" Inuyasha cut her off.

"Don't think that you won't come back and think that you will. That's all you need to do. That's all you need to promise me. Just think that you will and I'll be satisfied." He said

Hoping she would.

A small smile formed on her face. "Okay, I promise."

He nodded at her. "Good." He sat back down and began to finish eating his now cold ramen. As he ate he thought about their conversation didn't exactly know why he had said those things. He didn't know why he cared after all she was human the enemy he had fought all his life. Not only that but he couldn't figure out why he had showed her a softer side when he hadn't ever shown anyone else in his life. He had a feeling that his girl was going to cause problems in his life.

A knock at the door pulled Inuyasha from his thoughts.

"I wonder who that could be." Kagome said as she got up from the table. She opened the door to find a very stressed Sango. "Sango are you alright?"

Sango jumped onto her. "Kagome! I've been looking everywhere for you! I thought something might have happened to you." She said as relief flooded her voice. She walked in and saw Inuyasha. "Kagome who is he?" She said as she looked at him suspiciously.

"Sango this is…" Kagome trailed off when she realized that she had never gotten his name. "You know I actually don't even know your name."

"Yeah well I guess he can introduce himself." Sango's voice held no trust for Inuyasha at all.

"Names Inuyasha." He replied, catching sight of the insignia on her left arm. _She's a demon slayer. I didn't think there was any left. Guess I was wrong. I better be careful around her._ He thought.

"Right Inuyasha." She turned to Sango. "He saved me from some people that trying to hurt me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him." She said, smiling gratefully at him.

"Kagome can I talk to you for a minute." Sango asked. She didn't even wait for a reply as she grabbed Kagome and walked into another room. "How long have you been with that man?"

"For about twenty, thirty minutes. Why?"

"How can you let a man in to your house you don't even know?"

"Because he saved me and I felt as though I could trust him. That's why." She replied. Kagome walked out of the room only to have Sango pull her back.

"How do you know that you can trust him?" Sango was beginning to sound like her mother.

"Because I can see it in his eyes Sango. I can see that he has no desire to hurt me or do anything to harm me." She pulled her arm away. "You have to be more trusting Sango."

Sango sighed. "Alright Kagome I'll try to trust him, but it's just my nature for me to be suspicious."

Kagome smiled. "Good. Now come on."

Inuyasha really wished that he had his demonic hearing right now. Of course if he had his demonic hearing he'd probably be dead. He knew that they were talking about him and he wanted know about what. He really didn't like it when people talked about him when he wasn't around. Of course he doubted anyone did.

When the two came in he noticed that Sango wasn't looking at him so suspicious even though he could tell that she still didn't quite trust him. "What were you two talking about?"

"You. But were not going to tell you about what." Kagome replied as she and Sango sat down.

"Like I care what you say about me anyway." He replied even though he did.

"Inuyasha, why do you wear the armor of a warrior while you have no insignia or a badge?" Sango asked.

He looked down at his armor. _Crap. _He thought._ Think of something you idiot! _"Because I'm a wanderer." He relied, saying the first thing that came to mind.

"If you're a wanderer then where is your sword?" Kagome asked, wondering why she had not noticed he was wearing armor earlier.

Inuyasha eyes widened. His hand went to his hip finding no sword. He mentally punched himself for forgetting his sword when he left Miroku and Kouga. He hoped the two were taking care of it or there would be a couple of funerals when he got back. He looked at the two girls and saw they were still waiting for answers. "I prefer to fight with my fists."

A look of excitement appeared on Sango's face. "How bout a spare then?"

Inuyasha smirked. "You're on."

"Sango you sure you want to fight him? How do you know that you won't hurt him?" Kagome asked causing Inuyasha to scoff.

"Just because she's a demon slayer doesn't mean that I can't take her. I'm not that easy you know." He said as he started for the outside.

"Wait." Sango said. "How do you know that I'm a demon slayer?" She asked, shocked that he knew. After all since there were so few demon slayers left that only demons and warriors of high rank knew that they still existed.

Inuyasha mentally punched himself again. How could he have forgotten that not many people knew that demon slayers still existed? "I know that you're a demon slayer because I once knew one." He replied. He hoped that she would buy the lie, even though it wasn't really a lie. He had known a demon slayer, but only because he fought with him several times. Though they tied almost every time they fought, but Inuyasha beat him once and let him go.

"Oh. Okay. What was his name?"

"To be honest I don't know. I only spared with him. He put up one heck of a fight." He said, smirking as he thought back on their battles. They were the best if fights he's ever had. He wished that he could've had more. To bad though that the guy died from some disease otherwise he would've still be fighting the best fights he'd probably ever have.

She smiled at him and it looked like she believed him. "So you beat him?" Inuyasha nodded. "Well I guess we're going to have a good match."

"I hope so." Inuyasha readied himself for anything that could possible happen. He hoped that he could fight as well while he was in his human state, or at least make the match interesting, and that she had similar training to the other guy.

"Alright you two. Ready? Fight!" Kagome yelled, backing away from the both of them.

Inuyasha was the first one to start. He charged after her, swinging his right arm around. She blocked his arm and swung at his face. Ducking he managed to nail her in her stomach before backing off.

She grabbed her stomach and looked at him surprised. "You hit me. Definitely wasn't expecting that. Nor was I expecting for you to hit and move so fast."

"If you thought I was going to hold back because you're a girl I'm afraid you're wrong. In a fight I don't hold back against anybody. And if you're holding back don't. I can take anything you give." She nodded.

He charged her again. This time swinging with his left arm. She pushed his arm out of the way and before he could react hit him in the chest. He stumbled back, not expecting so much strength and speed from her.

_Better be careful. She's a lot faster and stronger than she looks._ He thought.

He ran after her again his right arm swinging at her. She blocked it and threw it away before taking a swipe at him. He spun around it and backed handed her. She stumbled back, but seconds later was attacking him. Her fist came at his face making him duck, but only to have a knee slammed into his stomach.

He grunted from the impact. He looked up in time to see a kick flying at his face. He quickly caught her foot and smacked her shin with his fist. He then threw her away from him.

She caught herself and ran at him. She swung her leg at him, only to have him dodge it, but she then brought her fist down on his shoulder. Grabbing his shoulder she quickly punched him in the side before kicking his feet out from under him. He picked himself off the ground and ran at her.

Kagome watched in amazement that Inuyasha was actually able to keep up with Sango. Sango was the best demon slayer in the kingdom and he could actually keep up with her. _No wonder he was able to beat those thugs so easily. _She continued to watch the two fight with equal strength but she could tell that Inuyasha was quickly losing strength. _He maybe as strong but he can't fight nearly as long._

She watched the battle end with Inuyasha getting kicked onto the ground. "Guess the fight is over?" She asked walking over toward the two.

"Guess so." Sango replied. "You know I'm surprised that you were able to keep up with me for that long. I don't believe any human has been able to do that."

"Yeah well there is a first time for everything." He said as he got up, his breathing ragged and heavy.

"That there is. Kagome I have to get going. I better spend sometime with Kohaku before we leave tomorrow." A sad look came over Sango's face as she remembered what was they were going to have to do tomorrow.

Kagome's face also darkened. "Okay Sango. I understand. Bye"

"Bye." She said as she slowly walked away. She turned to look back at Kagome one more time before continuing.

"Bye Sango." Kagome said to herself. She turned to Inuyasha and found him staring up at the moonless sky. "What are you looking at?" She walked up next to him and peered into the dark sky, attempting to find what he was looking for.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking." He replied. He turned to look at her and caught the sadness that shone in her eyes. "Come on. Let's get inside." She just nodded in agreement.

The two sat down onto the futon that lay across from the table. Kagome rested her head on Inuyasha shoulder causing a slight blush to form on his face. He stiffened somewhat not really knowing how to react, but as they sat there hestarted to relax.

"How can you trust me so easily?" He asked quietly.

"I thought I already told you why." She replied tiredly.

"But I still don't understand why just because you saw something in my eyes would make you suddenly trust me." Inuyasha could hear her breathing begin to slow.

"Because I just can." She said as she drifted off into sleep.

Inuyasha looked down at the girl who was quietly sleeping on his shoulder. _How can this girl trust me so easily? And how is it she can sleep without fear? This girl. I can't understand her at all_. _Well I can't understand any girl for that matter, but this one is different. I can't even begin to understand her. _He thought as he looked at her face.

She slept so peaceful even though she would be going through the hardest thing she would ever have to go through when she awoke. He couldn't even believe that her so called "King" would send his servants into a death trap. A king was supposed to lead his people into prosperity and life. Not to death and slaughter. His fist clenched as he continued to think about what the human king had ordered. He wasn't going to let the three die. He couldn't let them.

_Wait a second. Since when have I cared about human life? So what if a couple of demon slayers and a high archer are killed. That's three problems that I won't have to worry about. _He thought, but something inside his heart told him that wasn't what he really wanted or meant. _What is wrong with me? I'm not supposed to care about humans! They've been at war against us and are trying to wipe us off the face of the planet, yet it seems that I do care. But I'm not supposed to. It's against what I'm fighting for. _He looked back down at the Kagome, and his heart seemed to soften. "Yet it seems that this girl is softening my heart toward the human race." He said to himself.

He laid his head down onto hers. He closed his eyes, and let himself fall into a light sleep.

He awoke a few hours later and found himself in the same position as when he had drifted a sleep. He looked at the window and he saw the sun slowly rising over the mountains. _Crap I better get out of here._ He thought. _It's almost morning. She finds out I'm a half demon I'm dead._

He slowly moved his shoulder, being careful not to disturb her, and slowly laid her down. As he turned to walk away he was surprised that she reached out and grabbed his rm.

"Where are you going?" She asked tiredly. She tried to pull him back down but he wouldn't budge. "Please don't go."

"I'm sorry Kagome, but I have to."

"Don't. Please." She looked at him with half closed eyes; they were begging him to stay a little bit longer.

He shook his head. "I have to go. I promise you that'll we'll see each other again." He gently grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

Her eyes still pleaded for him to stay, but a sign of acceptance appeared in them. "Remember believe that you'll come back and you will. And I promise you that'll I'll see you again." He let go of her hand and walked out of the door.

"Good-bye, Inuyasha. I hope that you keep that promise." She quietly said to herself before drifting off back to sleep.

Inuyasha jumped from roof top to roof top, trying his best to avoid the streets. Even though he was still in his human form he wasn't sure when he was going to transform so he wanted to avoid them as best as possible. Of course running from roof to roof wasn't exactly the best way to avoid people since it would draw attention. He really didn't care. He just had to get back to the Western Lands before Kagome and Sango left. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to find them and have a chance to save them.

As he continued to run he also thought about who would help him. Who knows how many demons he might have to fight off in order to protect them. Not only that but they might attack him since he would be in his demon form. He was going to have a problem.

He felt a sudden change in his pace. He noticed that he was moving faster and saw the buildings fly pass him. _Guess I have my demonic powers again._ He smirked and ran as fast as he could.

Miroku awoke with a jerk. He looked around to find Inuyasha standing in front of him. "Ah Inuyasha you're back. We were getting worried that you might've perished since it was the night of the new moon."

"Yeah which you conveniently forgot to tell me about. Anyway that's not the point. I need your help with something." Miroku looked at him suspiciously. _Why am I getting so many of those looks lately? _"Why are you looking at me like that?

"Cause the only time you ask me for help is when you are planning on doing something either very stupid or very dangerous."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is. Every time I help you I usually get hurt or in trouble."

"Well that's your fault for listening to me. Anyway I need you to help me with something really important."

"Why should I?"

"Because there is a really hot girl that comes with this request." He saw Miroku jump up excitedly.

"Really? If you're joshing me I will hurt you."

"I'm not. But the thing I'm asking you to do is going to be something you won't be able to turn back from." He warned.

"For a hot girl I'll do anything you ask my friend." Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

"Pervert." He said to himself. "But I'm serious Miroku. The thing that you're going to do will not let you come back here."

Miroku shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. There are other places to live."

Inuyasha shook his head. "I mean you will never be able to come back into the Western Lands, alive anyway."

Miroku looked at him with a surprised look. "What are you planning Inuyasha?"

"I'm planning on completing a promise I made to somebody, and that promise is going to make me betray my people." Miroku's eyes widened.

"What promise did you make that'll make you do that?"

"I'll tell you later. Now will you help me or not?"

Miroku sighed. "Yes I'll help you. Besides I'm not really well like here anyway."

"You sure?" Miroku nodded. "Alright let's go." He said as he ran out the door. Miroku quickly followed him grabbing Inuyasha's sword as he went.

**That is the end of the second chapter. I'll try to update as fast as possible, but I may get a lazy streak and not update. I'll still try. And thank you firyfeline for my first review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: still don't own inu.

Kagome strapped on the last of her armor that she knew she was going to need in order to survive. Picking up her bow she slung her arrow pouch over her shoulder. She sighed heavily as she headed out through the door. She moved toward the start of the forest where she was supposed to meet Sango and Kohaku. As she walked she reminisced about what had happened the night before between Inuyasha and her. She didn't know why, but she really enjoyed his company and really hoped that he would keep his promise. Speaking of promises she would have to keep hers and stay alive. She just hoped that she could.

She couldn't believe that she was actually going on this suicide mission. Why didn't she just run away with Sango and Kohaku? Oh yeah she would be hunted down till she was killed, that's why. She just couldn't understand why the king had even ordered the mission. Did the king value his servants and subjects so little? Was some stupid orb more important than three of his best soldiers? Apparently it was more important since they were going on this suicide mission.

_Just believe_. Inuyasha's words wrung through her head. No matter how many times she tried to believe a voice of doubt echoed throughout her thoughts. He just didn't understand. He couldn't understand! He wasn't the one going on this stupid mission. She was and nothing he could've said could change that.

_Only the weak and cowardly give up. _His words continued to go through her head. _Don't doubt. Believe with all your heart and you will never fail. Unless you believe you will never come back! Promise me you'll have hope. _"Argh, Inuyasha get out of my head!" She yelled. "I'm sorry but I can't believe! It's too hard." She dropped to one knee and slowly tears fell from her eyes.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled. She looked up to find him standing in the shadows of the forest. "Believe with all your heart. And keep your promise. Cause I will be keeping mine."

Kagome stood up and quickly ran to him, but as she got closer she saw his figure begin to disappear. When she stood to where he was standing she found that he was never there at all. "Great my mind is playing tricks on me. Just what I needed."

"Hey Kagome, what are you doing?" Sango asked as she and Kohaku walked up to her. The two wore what looked to be extremely heavy armor as well as their main weapons, plus back up weapons. She didn't know how they managed to carry all that and still be able to move.

"Nothing. Just realizing how well my brain works when I don't focus." She said quietly to herself. "Come on. Let's get this over with." Slowly she walked into the forest.

"Sango, I don't know if I can do this." Kohaku said with fear clearly showing in his eyes.

Sango bent down and hugged him. "Kohaku, I know that you're afraid. I am too, but we have to go through with this." she let him go before following Kagome. Hesitating Kohaku followed the two girls, quickly following their pace.

As the three entered the demon forest territory they were surprised that there were no sounds of wild life or of demons. This made the three more unwary than they already were. They slowed their pace, watching the surrounding area. Every sudden wind caused the three to stiffen, waiting to see whether it really was the wind or some demon in waiting.

"I don't like this." Kagome said, looking around. "It's way to quiet. There is absolutely no sign of any demons." Kagome could feel her heart begin to speed up. She could feel an uneasy feeling settle in her.

"I know. I don't like this either." Sango replied her hand wrapped tightly around her hiraikotsu. She looked down at Kohaku to find his hand gripping his own weapon.

Kohaku felt his hands start to ache from holding his weapon so tightly, but he couldn't loose his fingers. He had never before been in demon territory and it scared him. Especially since it was a mission where he would be outnumbered by thousands. He didn't know if he could take the stress of it.

He suddenly felt something grasp his hand. He looked down at it to find Sango holding it. "It's okay. Be strong little brother." She said in a voice that comforted him like the way his mother did. "We'll get through this. I promise." He nodded in reply his body relaxing somewhat.

"Come on. We better pick up the pace otherwise we'll be stuck out here till next morning." Kagome said as she started to walk faster, all the while her senses expanded to their limits.

Sango and Kohaku sped up after her, wary of the forest. They suddenly heard the shifting of leaves. The three froze. They looked to their left to see the brush moving. On instinct they drew their weapons, all aimed at the spot. They stared, with their entire bodies tensed up and on alert.

As the three stared they saw the brush stop moving, yet they still were watching it. Several seconds passed and not another sound was made. Slowly, ever so slowly they began to walk again, but their eyes were watching the spot as they continued forward.

Suddenly somethingshot out passed Kagome. She bit back the urge to scream and instead drew her bow back; aiming the notched arrow at whatever had scared her. Sango and Kohaku both looked in the direction of where whatever had scared Kagome, only to find it hidden under the leaves.

Kagome walked to it, kicking the leaves away. When she cleared all of the leaves away she nearly laughed at herself for being afraid of a squirrel. Sango and Kohaku let out a sigh of relief. Kagome walked over the squirrel, continuing with the mission.

Several minutes later the squirrel transformed into a little read haired little boy. "So there are humans in the forest. I better tell Inuyasha." The boy ran back into the forest.

"Sango we've been traveling for hours and there still isn't any sign of the orb or even of demons. I'm really getting a bad feeling about this." Kagome said as the trio sat down in order to eat.

"I know Kagome. There is something defiantly wrong about this. And I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched." Sango looked over her shoulder her eyes scanning the forest.

"I can't shake the feeling either." She replied her hand grasping her bow and arrow.

"Sango do you think there is anything out there?" Kohaku asked.

"I don't know."

"I hope not. I don't think that I'm ready to take on any demons." Sango put her arm around him.

"Kohaku, have some confidence. Chances are we won't even meet any demons and if we do remember that you're a demon slayer. You are trained to take on any demon."

"She's right you know. You need to have some confidence. I'm sure that no demon is strong enough to take us on and live." Even thought Kagome knew that what she had said was a lie she just needed to give the boy some courage.

She looked over Kohaku. He was so young to be out fighting demons. He had never before fought any, nor had he even had the training to be able to fight in a group. Her hand clenched tightly, she could feel her nails dig into her skin. She was enraged that her so called "King" would send a ten, eleven year old boy out into demon territory who had never fought before or even had the appropriate training. If she made it back alive and intact she knew who would receive her wrath.

"Kagome, what's wrong." Sango said snapping Kagome from her thoughts.

"Nothing. Just thinking." She smiled at her. "So are we going to eat or just sit here?" she opened her food bag hidden beneath her left shoulder armor, making sure to not remove the item that blocked the smell of the food from seeping out.

Grabbing the sandwich hidden inside she quickly ate it, all the while thing about the words that Inuyasha had said. She especially thought about his promise. "You better keep it Inuyasha or I will never be able to forgive you." She quietly said to herself.

As she finished her meal she stood up, a sudden wave of danger rang throughout her mind. She looked around intensely. Her hand reached quickly reached for her bow.

"Kagome what is it?" Sango asked curious as to why Kagome looked so tense.

"Shh. There is something out there." Kagome raised her bow.

Sango picked up her hiraikotsu and looked around. Kohaku following suit.

"But Kagome I'm not sensing any demonic aura."

"But I do." A strange feeling told her to loose her arrow, and she listened.

A high pitched scream cut through the air causing the three to cover their ears. The looked around to find themselves suddenly surrounded by dozens of spider heads, all armed with swords and spears.

"Spider heads. That's why I didn't sense anything. Their demonic aura isn't strong enough." Sango raised her hiraikotsu. "Very weak, but there are many of them. Hiraikotsu!" She let her giant boomerang fly.

Scene change

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha! Where are you? Inuyasha!" The little boy yelled as he entered Inuyasha's hut.

"Shippo what's with all of the yelling?" Kouga asked as he walked out of his room.

"Oh hey Kouga. Have you seen Inuyasha? I need to talk to him."

"Nope, what do you need to talk to him about?"

"There are three humans in the forest that he needs to take care of."

Kouga smirked. "Alright. I'll go take care of them." He took off in a blur.

Shippo smacked his head. "Why does he try to show Inuyasha up?" He couldn't understand why the two were so prideful and always trying to surpass each other. One way or another.

Kouga walked into a hut that was sort of shaped like a cloud with lighting going through it. "Hey thunder brothers! You two interested in going hunted for a couple of humans?"

"Of course. What kind of question is that?" They both said in unison.

"Good, let's go!" Kouga ran with the two brothers following.

Sango breath came outraged and uneven. She could feel a slight soreness in her arm from having to throw her hiraikotsu so much. She looked at Kohaku to see him also breathing heavily and seeing him having a hard time standing, but he was uninjured. She smiled at that.

She looked over at Kagome to find her flexing her fingers. She could see that pulling the bow string back so many times had caused her skin to go raw.

"This isn't good. I've got eight arrows left." Kagome said looking into her arrow pouch that held over seventy arrows at one time.

"We might have to turn back."

Kagome shook her head. "If we turn back we'll be hanged. We're just going to have to keep moving." she began to walk over the dead bodies of spider heads, disgusted by the way some were mangled. She ignored it and continued forward. "Come on." She said looking back at the other two.

"That's kind of surprising. Those three managed to take down over a seventy spider heads without a single injury." One of the thunder brothers said as they, and Kouga, watched from the shadows of the forest.

"Yeah I know. This fight might actually be entertaining." The other said.

"Hey Hiten, Manten keep it down. They're going to know we're here." Kouga said as he looked at Kagome, Sango, and Kohaku.

A whistling sound cut through the air. An arrow shot passed Kouga causing him to jump back.

"Too late. They already know that we're here." Hiten said. He and Manten jumped out of the shadows in front of the trio. Kouga jumped out as well. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? A couple of demon slayers and a high archer."

Kagome eyes widened. "The thunder brothers. Oh no." she wasn't expecting them to show up. She didn't even know that they were still alive. Now that she did she knew that they were her she knew that they were not coming back alive, without some kind of miracle anyway.

The two brothers laughed, clearly sensing the fear that ran off Kagome. "We are here to dispose of you three. And hopefully you'll put up an entertaining fight especially after that defeating all those spider heads."

"And after we kill you I'm going to use your flesh as an ingredient in my hair tonic, so then I may finally get my beautiful hair back." Manten said his eyes looking over the three.

"And your skulls will make fine trophies as well." Hiten said and evil glint in his eyes.

Kouga looked over the trio, sensing the fear and distress pouring off Kagome and Kohaku. As he looked at Kagome and felt a sudden wave of want. He wanted Kagome alive. "Hey you two." He said to the brothers. "Make sure you leave the high archer alive. She's mine."

"I can't believe that you want some pathetic human girl." Hiten said with disgust.

"Just do it." He growled angrily.

"Fine so long as we get to kill." As Hiten turned away from Kouga an arrow pierced his chest. He looked over at Kagome, with surprise. "You little. You'll pay for that."

Hiten flew towards Kagome, his staff raised. As he brought his staff down he was surprised to see that Sango had blocked it with hiraikotsu.

Manten blind sided Sango before she could even react causing her to fly several feet. As she hit the ground she lost her grip on Hiraikotsu and it smacked her in the head, knocking her out.

"Sango!" Kohaku and Kagome yelled. They looked back at the brothers and saw them start to inch slowly toward them.

"Hey make sure you leave the archer alive!" Kouga yelled at them. He sat down and decided not to get involved, especially since the brothers were careless and often hit their allies when they got into a fight.

"Yeah, yeah. " Hiten walked toward Kohaku while Manten started for Kagome.

She started to back away, not really knowing what to do. She was about to notch an arrow, but Manten fired a lighting bolt, knocking her bow out of her hands. She looked up at him with nothing but pure fright in her eyes.

"You know I don't care what that mangy wolf says. I'm going to kill you anyway. Your flesh is exceedingly fair and will enhance my tonic greatly. So say good-bye!" Manten fired a lighting bolt at her.

She stood frozen in fear as it came at her in slow motion. She relived her life in seconds. Every good time, bad, mistakes she made ran through her mind. Every person she ever met, their face passed through her mind. One face that appeared over and over was Inuyasha's. His promise ran through her head. He wasn't going to keep it. A tear slide down her cheek as the bolt headed for her.

A sudden wave of gold rippled in front of her causing the bolt of lighting to dissipate. She looked over to see where it had come from and found a silver haired Inuyasha with a giant demonic sword.

"Hey Kagome. Long time no see." Kagome looked at him with nothing less than shock.

She was shocked by the fact he saved her and that he completed his promise. She was shocked to see that his hair was silver no longer black and by his ears. They were no longer on the side of his face, but on the top of his head. She was also shocked that his sword was demonic. She was especially shocked to find that he was no longer human, but demon.

"Inu-Inuyasha?" She looked at him with a mix of happiness and confusion in her eyes.

"Yep, told you I'd keep my promise." He smirked at her before turning to the brothers. "Hiten. Manten. I was hoping never to see you two again." His voice carrying a heavy tone of dislike, even hatred.

Hiten glared at him. "Feelings mutual." Manten nodded.

"Inuyasha what are you doing here?" Kouga asked as he stood up.

"Kouga? I should be asking you the same question. Oh well. I guess we will be having our fight soon. Now what do you say we stop talking and start fightin?" Inuyasha shifted his sword so it faced the three.

Kouga growled angrily. "You are going to fight against your own kind? You'll be branded as a traitor. We'll be forced to hunt you down until you're dead."

Inuyasha scoffed. "Whatever. You really think I care?"

Kouga's anger began to rise. He couldn't believe he would betray his own people. Half breed or not he couldn't believe it. "You are betraying your father you know that!"

Inuyasha scoffed again. "Like my "Father" even cares about me. He's to busy to fighting this war. He cares more about this war than his own family. And besides the only thing he's ever given me is the tetsusaiga, and only so I could kill humans. Now I'm going to make sure I use it to kill you three!"

Inuyasha jumped at Hiten, his sword coming down on him. Hiten blocked the strike before kicking Inuyasha in the stomach. Inuyasha fell back and then quickly took another slash at him.

As the two fought it out Manten started for Kagome again. Seeing him come closer she had to resist the temptation to take a step back. She wasn't going to allow him to see her scared. Even if he could already sense it. She just wasn't going to give him any satisfaction. She couldn't. She just couldn't.

As Manten came closer she remembered the promise she made to Inuyasha. _I have to stay alive. I promise that I would. He kept his so I now have to keep mine. _Picking up her bow, which thankfully wasn't very far away, she notched an arrow and took aim. When he walked straight into her line of sight she let it fly.

It whistled through the air, closing in on Manten. The arrow struck his demon hide and only laughed.

"You really think that a puny arrow is going to stop me? It'll take more than that!" He ran at her, swinging his fist. She managed to dodge it.

Notching another arrow she quickly shot it into his skull, but it failed to penetrate it. He broke the arrow off and threw it at her. Rolling out of the way she notched another arrow. Firing it as she ran the arrow struck him in the leg and thankfully it hit it in a way that caused him to stumble and nearly break his leg.

"Ow you little! I'm going to kill you!" he attempted to get up, but his nearly broken leg caused him to fall back down, so instead he fired a lighting bolt.

She nearly froze in fear, but she shook out of it and jumped out of the way, firing an arrow all the while. The arrow skimmed the top of Manten's head causing his hands to fly up to it. His hands felt only one hair instead of three. His anger quickly sky rocketed.

"Now I'm going to make sure that you die a very slow and painful death!" Ignoring the pain that was in his leg he ran at her, but not before firing a lightning bolt, knocking her bow away. He swung his fist at her again, and again she dodged it. But she didn't dodge the knee that slammed into her chest.

She felt several cracks erupt from her chest. Three sudden pains shot through her chest, telling her that she had broken some bones. She felt another pain on her head and soon found herself being picked up by her hair and staring into an angry Manten.

"Aww did that hurt? We'll let me help it feel better!" He pulled his fist back and as he threw it forward he was surprised to feel something holding him back. He looked back to find Miroku holding his arm.

"You should learn not to hit women. They deserve more respect than that." He said shaking his finger.

"Hey you stupid human let go of my arm you're supposed to be on my side." Kagome looked over at Miroku and was surprised to see that he was human, on the demon's side. That was something she had never seen before.

Before Manten could react Miroku slammed his staff on his head causing him to drop Kagome. She let out a small yelp as the pain in her chest grew. She looked at the two, seeing that the Miroku was now fighting Manten. She silently thanked him and looked at Inuyasha.

She saw that Hiten and Inuyasha were of equal strength. Neither of them could get and edge. She watched them cross weapons over and over, yet they couldn't land a hit on each other. She saw that Inuyasha was becoming irritated. She thought she should help him, but with several broken bones she didn't know what she could do.

She looked at Kohaku and found him next to his sister's side. Slowly she got up and walked over to him, trying to ignore the pain that pulsed through her chest.

"Kohaku how is she?" She asked struggling with the words since it caused her chest to move.

"Fine, but I don't know how much longer she's going to be out." He looked over his unconscious sister with worry. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over at Kagome.

"Listen Kohaku. Get out of here. You need to go back home or to another village. We might not survive, but at least you can." Kohaku shook his head. "Go. Now!" He still didn't move. "You might be the last demon slayer left and we're going to need more people trained in the art so you have to survive. Now go!" She pushed him away and this time he listened. He ran away from everybody as fast as he could. No one noticed his exit.

Kagome looked around again, and noticed someone was missing. Kouga was missing. _Where did he go?_ She was pushed from her thoughts when she heard a groan from Sango. "Bout time you woke up."

"Where's Kohaku!" she yelled as the memory of what happen and where she was came back into her mind.

"Don't worry Sango. I told him to run away. He's heading back home." That still didn't calm her down.

"But Kagome there are demons out there!"

"Don't worry Sango. I wouldn't of sent him out there if I didn't give him some protection. He's got a priestesses sutra on his shoulder. No demon will touch him." That seemed to calm her down somewhat, but she still worried about him.

"What's going on? Who are those guys?" Sango asked as her gaze shifted to the four fighting.

Kagome smiled. "I tell you later. Right now we need to help. Sango can you grab my bow. I'm afraid I've got some broken bones so I can't move well." Sango was about to ask what happened, but Kagome cut her off. "I'll tell you later." Sango nodded before standing up to get Kagome's bow.

Sparks erupted as Hiten and Inuyasha's weapons connected. The two pushed against each other, trying to get better footing. Inuyasha pushed Hiten away before attacking him, his sword slamming into Hiten's staff. Hiten felt his foot slip from the pressure. Inuyasha took advantage of his loose footing and took another slash at him. Hiten felt the sting of the sword cutting into his shoulder as he moved away to dodge it.

Stumbling Hiten jumped at Inuyasha dodging the on coming strike before kicking him in the back. Inuyasha swung around his sword connecting with Hiten's staff. Hiten knocked Inuyasha sword away before stabbing him in the chest with the other end. As He tried to move away Inuyasha grabbed his staff, keeping him in range of the tetsusaiga's swing, and swung at him. Hiten let go of it, cursing himself for being careless.

Inuyasha pulled the staff out of his chest and broke it across his knee. Inuyasha ran at Hiten not letting him have the chance to rest. As he swung he was surprised to find that the tetsusaiga was knocked from his hand. He was even more surprised that a lightning bolt slammed in to him.

He flew into the air several feet before catching himself on the ground. "You'll pay for that." He put his hands in his chest, covering them in blood. "Iron reaver soul stealer!" He swung his claws causing five yellow waves to come at Hiten. As Hiten dodged them he swung his blood covered claws. "Blades of blood!" Hiten tried to block the five red waves, but they cut into him anyway.

As Hiten recovered from the hit he found Inuyasha's fist was buried into his face. He jumped back, spitting blood from his mouth. He looked at Inuyasha in disbelief. The half demon had grown stronger since the last time they fought. He couldn't believe it. He really hated that he was being outpaced by a half demon.

"Manten let's go. We're retreating." Hiten said not believing that he had to run away.

As Manten recovered from another hit on the head he looked at his brother in disbelief, but not very long since Miroku threw a sutra on him causing his back to burn. He threw the sutra off and joined his brother.

"We'll see you again. Half breed." Hiten said the last word with nothing but pure hatred.

"Yeah and the next time we meet I'll kill you." Hiten only smirked.

"And I'll kill you pathetic girl." Manten yelled to Kagome before the two brothers flew away.

Inuyasha immediately ran to Kagome, sensing her pain. "Kagome you alright?" He looked over her and was surprised to see that she was smiling at him. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. It's just that you kept your promise."

"And you kept yours." A sudden smack caught his attention. He and Kagome looked over at Miroku and Sango to find Miroku knocked out on the ground. "What did he do?"

"He groped me is what he did." She looked at the unconscious Miroku to make sure he was knocked out. Inuyasha just rolled his eyes. When she looked back at Inuyasha she then realized that he looked different. That he looked demon. She jumped back. "You're a demon! Get away from him Kagome."

Kagome looked up at Inuyasha. She had forgotten about his demonic transformation, but that still didn't make her move away. Well she couldn't move even if she wanted to. Her ribs or some other bones were broken and prevented her from moving.

"Kagome don't be afraid. I'm still the same Inuyasha I was last night." He said, trying to make sure that Kagome didn't get scared of him.

"Except the fact you were human last night." Miroku said as he woke up.

Inuyasha hit him on the head. "You're not helping. I know that I look different but I'm still the Inuyasha you met last night."

"Ah so that's why you were gone all last night. You were with-"Inuyasha hit Miroku in the head again.

"You're still not helping."

"If you're the same Inuyasha we met last night then why do you look demon and not human." Sango asked, her hand gripping her sword.

Inuyasha sighed. "Because last night was the night of the new moon. It's on those nights that I lose my demonic powers. That's why I was human."

"So that's why you left before morning. Because you were afraid that if I found out you were a demon that I would either try to kill you or turn you in to the king." Kagome said. Inuyasha nodded. She looked into his amber eyes to find that even though the color was different that the feelings and emotions she saw the night before were the same. "Sango it's alright. It's the Inuyasha you met the night before."

Sango looked at Kagome and loosed her grip on her sword. She knew that Kagome wouldn't lie and not only that but she had a way of seeing people's hearts. "Sorry Inuyasha."

"No problem." He looked around. "Where did Kouga go?"

"He took off during the fighting." Kagome said

Inuyasha smirked. "Coward." A sudden winds passed them and the scent of several demons were on it. "We need to get out of here." He gently picked up Kagome before running off. Miroku and Sango followed him.

"Where are we going?" Kagome asked.

"There is a cave about ten miles from here. We're going to campout there."

As nightfall approached they reached the cave. Inuyasha looked down at Kagome to find that she had fallen asleep. "Miroku get some wood." He set Kagome down. "Sango watch her." He said as he took off into the forest.

Two hours later the two returned with enough wood to last a week, along with some dead animals.

"What's with all of that?" Sango asked.

"We'll be staying here until Kagome heals." Inuyasha walked toward the front of the cave.

Miroku set two pieces of the wood into the make shift fire hole before lighting it on fire. The light from the flames woke Kagome.

"Where are we?' she asked as she sat up against the cave wall.

"Ina cave." Miroku said. He looked up at the cave's ceiling. "Inuyasha, it's still open. Go ahead." The two girls looked at Inuyasha to see him closing the cave opening with a giant boulder.

"What's he doing?" Both girls asked in unison.

"He needed to close the cave entrance to prevent any demons form entering. And don't worry about air. There are many ways by which the air enters the cave so we'll be fine." Miroku said as he took one of the animals and started to skin it.

"What about water?" Kagome asked.

"There is a water hole down here too." Inuyasha said as he sat down next to her.

"You guys have been preparing for something haven't you?" Sango asked.

Miroku nodded. "We scouted out any area we could use for shelter incase the war didn't turn in our favor." The two girls nodded. He laid the now skinned animal across the fire pit. "Food will be ready in a few hours."

The four ate in silence when the food finished. They all were thinking about their own things and really didn't care for talking. The silence endured until Miroku broke it.

"I'm going to bed so good night." He laid down on his back and shut his eyes. "Sango care to join me?" Her response was a smack. Inuyasha rolled his eyes.

Sango laid down on her side. "I'm going to get some sleep too. Night Kagome."

"Night." Kagome rested her head on Inuyasha's shoulder. "Night Inuyasha."

He smiled at her. "Night Kagome." He gently rested his head on hers and closed his eyes.

**Chapter three is done and it is the longest chapter yet. Thanks for reading and I'll try to update as soon as possible. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: don't own still

Inuyasha awoke with a soft pressure on his hand. He looked down to find that sometime during the night Kagome had wrapped her hand around his. A blush rose to his face, but he didn't remove his hand from hers.

"Well I think that somebody likes somebody." Inuyasha looked over to Miroku, surprised that he was awake.

Inuyasha's blush rose slightly. "Whatever. You don't know what you are talking about." He avoided looking at Miroku's face.

"Really? Then why are you holding Kagome's hand?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Inuyasha looked back down at their intertwined hands but couldn't bring himself to separate them or rather didn't want to. He just avoided looking at Miroku and closed his eyes.

"See. I think that you're starting to like that girl." Miroku looked at Inuyasha to find that he was still avoiding him.

Inuyasha ignored him, really not in the mood to listen. He was tempted to knock him out, but if he got up he would disturb Kagome. So he settled with throwing a rock.It hit him in the forehead.

"Ow. That hurts you know." Inuyasha just shrugged.

"It's not like it doesn't serve you right. You idiot." He rested his head back down on Kagome's.

"You know that I've never seen you like a girl before."

Inuyasha looked at him with one eye open. "I don't like her like that."

Miroku shook his head. "You can deny it all you want but the way you're acting around her shows that you do. Oh well at least it shows that you're not gay." The last statement earned him a face full of rocks, plus a flaming piece of wood down his shirt. Miroku danced around while Inuyasha hold back a fit of laughter.

"You call me gay again or even suggest it I will make sure that you have some burns." Inuyasha said as he watched Miroku fish the burning wood out of his shirt. "Now can we talk about something else?" Inuyasha said trying to get off the personal subject about a certain girl.

"Fine." He said as he sat down. "What are we going to do about Kouga and the thunder brothers?"

"Don't know. All I know is that now we are in some serious trouble." He sighed. He couldn't believe that he betrayed the entire kingdom in order to save one human girl that he hardly knew. Though it seemed that he would do anything for her despite the fact of not knowing her. "We'll not only have those three to worry about but the entire demon kingdom."

Miroku sighed as well. "Yep we are seriously going to have a hard time. We'll be hunted until we are dead."

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. It's not like I haven't been hunted before." He smirked and clenched his fist. "Besides, I can take anyone that comes at me."

"Yeah I'm sure you can. Except for your brother." Inuyasha's mood suddenly changed at his "brother's" name.

"Half brother. If that." His voice held venom, showing his obviousdislike for his brother.

"You do know that he will use your betrayal as an excuse to come after you and kill you."

Inuyasha fist tightened. "So? He's wanted to kill me ever since he knew that I had human blood flowing through my veins. Besides, I bet he would try to kill me even if I hadn't betrayed the kingdom."

"What about your father? He may come down on you too." He saw that Inuyasha's face darkened.

"I don't know." He said quietly. "He may just come down to punish me. I doubt he'd try to kill me. But my father can be unpredictable at times and I may soon end up in a graveyard. And if he did try to kill me I don't think I could stop him. He's far stronger than I am. Even with the tetsusaiga I doubt I could do anything." He felt Kagome's grip tighten around his hand. He looked down at her to find that she had been awake during most of the conversation.

She looked up at him, sadness in her brown eyes. "Does your family really hate you that much?" He smiled at her.

"Afraid so." The look in her eyes seemed to deepen.

"How can you be smiling?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Guess I've gotten used to it."

Kagome looked away, but her grip tightened around his hand as if trying to comfort him. She felt bad that there was nothing she could do. Staring into the burning flames of the fire she thought of how it might feel to have your entire family hate you because of a different blood that you had. She just couldn't believe it. She didn't want to.

"Kagome there is no point in dwelling on the thought." She looked up at him, surprised that he knew. "I've lived my entire life being hated. There's nothing that you can do. So don't think about it. Besides you've got your own problems to worry about. My life is not important."

The last sentence made Kagome do something she didn't even expect to do. She slapped him. He looked down at her with a mixture of shock and surprise. "Don't. Don't you ever say that again."

"Say what? That my life isn't important? Cause it's not." She looked at him sadly.

"How can you say that?" He didn't answer. He just stared into the fire. "How can you say that?" he still didn't answer. Her anger began to rise. "How can you say that!" she yelled.

He jumped from her sudden outburst. He hadn't expected her to do that. "Cause I can. And why do you care so much anyway? You don't even know me."

"I care because I can." She replied, using his own line. "And you should care as well. Your life is important no matter what you think."

"Yeah and how do you know how I think? You've only known me for what two days? You don't know me at all." He started to get up, but Kagome pulled him down. The amount of power from the injured girl surprised him and caused him to become unbalanced and go straight back down.

"You're right. I don't know you that well, but I can see that in your eyes everything you are saying is a lie. You do care about your life and you hope that your life is important. That something good will come from it. One way or another."

He scoffed. "Like you can really tell what I'm thinking or feeling just by looking into my eyes. It's not possible." He said as he stared into her eyes. He knew that he was lying. He knew that the girl could see into his eyes, which was a first because he had such a shield that no one before could tell his thoughts and feelings even if they could do it to everyone else. Yet this girl he had known for two days could tell every emotion, thought, and feeling that he had. And in a way that scared him.

As he stared into her eyes he searched them. He found that more than one emotion ran through them. Sadness, happiness, disbelief that he thought is life was nothing. Several other emotions ran through her eyes. Even one he couldn't identify.

"Inuyasha, you keep telling yourself that your life isn't important, but I know that you believe it is. Not only that but I think that your life is important." Inuyasha was surprised that she had said that. No other person had ever said that except for his mother.

A muffled cough caught the two's attention. "Well even though it's nice to see this little romantic scene play out I'm starting to get hungry and I believe it's Inuyasha's turn to prepare our food." Miroku said, obviously tired of being ignored. The two blushed from his comment before Inuyasha reluctantly got up, releasing his hand from hers.

Kagome shifted uncomfortably as a rock constantly poked into her back. She attempted to move, but a massive pain erupted form her chest. The pain nearly caused her to pass out.

"Kagome are you alright?" Miroku asked as he walked over to her. She gave him a weak nod. He noticed that she was grasping her chest tightly. "What bones are broken?"

She took several seconds to catch her breath before responding. "I think I broke my ribs and maybe my collarbone."

"Then you need to stay still for a while." He helped move her into a comfortable position and she smiled gratefully at him. "Glad to help." As he took his spot next to Sango he noticed that a strange aura was radiating off Kagome, but it was gone a second later. He was about to ask what it was but she had dozed off before he could.

_What was that?_ He thought. He stared at her sleeping form, but eventually shook the thought away.

Sango awoke with a shiver. She sat up and groggily looked around the cave. "Who else is up?"

"Besides me, Inuyasha. Kagome was up a second ago but she fell back asleep." Miroku looked at her half asleep face. "You know that you look cute when you look like that." The comment caused her to blush.

She turned her head away from him, trying to hide the blush. "Why are you giving me a compliment? You don't even know me."

"You're right I don't know you, but…" He snuck up closer to her. "I know that you're the most beautiful girl I've seen." She turned to look at him and found his face a few inches from her face.

"Aaah!" she screamed. Her hand swung up and connected with his face. He flew backwards, clutching his cheek. She tried to slow her racing heart. "What are you doing getting that close to me?" An embarrassed blush appeared on her face.

"I didn't think that you would mind." She looked at him like he was crazy.

"You didn't think I would mind?" She yelled. "You're invading my personal space!"

She turned her head in another direction, trying to avoid him. She suddenly felt something touch a spot that was not supposed to be touched. She quickly turned her head at Miroku. She looked down at his hand. Her eye twitched. "You little!" A loud smack resounded throughout the cave.

Inuyasha was forced to cover his ears from since it was so loud. It even woke Kagome up.

Sango stared angrily at the now unconscious Miroku. Her stare was so intense that it could've burned a whole through his forehead. "You pervert." She said as she continued to stare at him.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, rubbing her eyes.

"This thing." Sango pointed her at Miroku. "Groped me!"

"Don't worry about it. He does that to almost every pretty girl that he's seen." Inuyasha said as he tossed the food onto the open fire. "You should sort of take it as a compliment." Sango looked at him the same way she looked at Miroku, just with less intensity. He nearly took a step back. "I mean because he thinks you're pretty. That's all I meant." He slowly walked back toward Kagome, her stare following him all the way.

As he sat down he scooted behind Kagome. "Will you tell her to stop staring at me like that?" He whispered into her ear. She laughed lightly at the scared tone in his voice, thought she regretted it when her chest hurt.

"Don't worry. She'll stop looking at you like that in a few hours." She tried to hold back a laugh when she heard him groan.

Another groan was heard as Miroku slowly sat up. His movements were slow and disoriented. As he opened his eyes he found a very angry Sango looking at him. He almost instantly shrunk back. "Why Sango what's with the angry look?" He asked as he backed away.

"You know full well what's with the angry look." He looked down at her hand, which had begun to form into a tight fist.

He looked over at Inuyasha. "A little help here?' He begged.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Nope. You're on your own when it comes to fighting an angry demon slayer."

Miroku looked back at the angry Sango. "Sango I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me."

"Oh I won't hurt you." She smiled evilly. "Much." Miroku stood up, and began running toward the other end of the cave, Sango hot on his heels.

The other two laughed. "How long is the cave?" Kagome asked resting her head on Inuyasha's chest.

"About three miles." He looked down at Kagome and wrapped his arms around her stomach, being careful that he didn't put to much pressure on it.

The two sat in silence, staring at the fire. They enjoyed the peaceful silence except for the occasional sound of yelling that echoed throughout the cave. As they sat quietly they both began to wonder why they were suddenly so comfortable with each other. They barely knew each other, yet they seemed to be fine holding hands and showing other ways of affection with no problem. They seemed to trust each other amazingly easily and that kind of scared them both. Why did they not have a problem with it? They weren't a couple or anything. So why then did they trust each other so easily?

Inuyasha suddenly felt a pulse coming from Kagome. It was very small and he almost didn't feel it if it had not felt familiar. He knew that he had felt it before, but where?

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Kagome's hand pull down on his arm. "What is it?"

"The food is burning." She said as she pointed to the food that was now on fire. His eyes widened as he quickly grabbed it. He was thankful that it was arms length away otherwise he wouldn't of been able to grab it. Not only that but he would've had to disturb Kagome.

He tore the meat into two pieces, handing one to Kagome and keeping one for himself. When he noticed that she wasn't eating he looked at her. "What's wrong? Is it not cooked enough?"

She shook her head. "No it's fine, but what about Sango and Miroku? They need to eat too."

"Oh. Yeah them. Forgot they were here." He took the two pieces and broke them into four. "Hey Sango and pervert! Get over here and eat!" He yelled.

Several minutes passed before they he heard the sound of footsteps, but he heard only one set instead of two. As a figure approached out of the darkness of the cave they saw that it was Sango and she had a pretty big smile on her face.

"Where's Miroku?" Kagome asked as she started to eat.

"Oh him? He's just knocked out about a mile down." She grabbed a piece of meat before sitting down.

"Well you seem pretty happy." Inuyasha said as he swallowed his chunk in one bite. Kagome looked at him, surprised that he didn't choke on it.

Minutes later they heard another sound of footsteps and found that Miroku was walking back, and he had a large bump forming on his head. "Hey you guys did save some stuff for me didn't you?" the two girls nodded as Inuyasha threw him his piece.

As Miroku sat down next to Sango she watched his hands. Even though she thought that knocking him out three times would stop him she wasn't sure. She had a feeling it wouldn't stop him. She knew that those hands would be a problem in the future.

The four sat back and slowly digested their food. Inuyasha rested his head on Kagome's, ignoring the look he was getting from Sango. He closed his eyes silently, enjoying being close to her. He realized that he was getting too comfortable around her again.

_What is wrong with me? Why am I so freaking relaxed around her? I don't understand. She's human._ He thought. As he pondered this thing he felt her head become heavy on his chest. _She's asleep again. How often is she going to do that? _He wondered. He soon found himself dozing off as well.

Sango and Miroku looked at the two both smiling. "I think that those two like each other." Sango said as she watched the sleeping pair, who seemed completely and utterly relaxed.

"I do believe that you are right. But the two don't quite realize it yet." Miroku said as he leaned back and rested on his hands. Sango nodded in agreement.

"Do you know why they are acting so close?"

Miroku shrugged. "Don't know."

Sango rested her head on her knees, and quietly watched the two sleep. She wondered if she would ever be able to experience what they were experiencing. She thought back on how her parents were when they were around each other. She remembered that they seemed to show their affection and love for each other almost every second of everyday.

She smiled sadly as she remembered her parents. They had died about three years ago while her and Kohaku were out hunting. They had been killed by a demon disguised as a human. She couldn't believe that they had been killed when she first arrived by their dead bodies. She didn't want to believe it. She felt even worse for Kohaku. He had taken it worse than she had. And now they were the only two left of their family.

As she thought of her family she wondered how Kohaku was. She hoped that he had gotten away from the forest unharmed. She was beginning to miss him. She hoped that Kagome would heal soon so she could go look for him.

A tear fell down her cheek as she thought about him. She was surprised to find that Miroku wiped it away. He smiled at her comfortingly and she smiled back.

"You mind telling me about what you're crying about?" he asked. She nodded.

"Just thinking about my little brother Kohaku. He ran away during the fighting and I hope that he got away unharmed." She said as she wiped another tear away that streamed down her cheek.

"I'm sure he did. He is a demon slayer too right?" He put his arm around her shoulder hoping to make her feel better and he was surprised to find that she didn't seem to mind.

"Yes he is but he is young. Too young. He shouldn't been out there in the first place." Another tear fell down her cheek. Miroku wiped it away before she could. She smiled at him again.

Miroku got a sudden feeling to embrace her, but he wasn't sure whether to listen. He was afraid he would get slapped again. But as he waited the feeling grew and he couldn't fight it anymore so he embraced her.

She was a little shocked at first and didn't know how to react, but as he held her she started to relax. She even hugged back. He let her go to find that she wasn't holding up a fist or chasing him around and for that he was grateful. He turned his head back to the fire and found that on the other side of it he saw Inuyasha looking at them with an open eye. The two instantly blushed and looked away from each other.

"Well aren't you two close?" Inuyasha said as he held back his laughter.

"Shut up Inuyasha. We're no closer than you to that girl." Miroku replied causing Inuyasha to stop laughing.

"Whatever." He closed his eye again. He really didn't feel like arguing. He thought about the conversation between the other two and as he thought about Sango's little brother something hit him. "Shippo!" he suddenly yelled out.

Miroku looked up at him his eyes wide. "We forgot about Shippo. He's going to think we abandoned him." Inuyasha nodded.

Inuyasha gently took Kagome off of him and headed for the entrance of the cave. He started to remove the giant boulder blocking it.

"Who's Shippo?" Sango asked as she watched him remove the giant boulder from the entrance of the cave before jumping out and putting back.

"He's a kitsune that Inuyasha and I promised to take care of after his parents were killed." Miroku replied.

"What happen to his parents?"

Miroku looked down sadly. "They were killed by the thunder brothers. They skinned his father alive and display his fur as a trophy." Sango's mouth dropped.

"That's horrible. It's inhumane! I thought demons were on the same side."

"They are but the thunder brothers love to kill. They especially love to kill demons since they put up a better fight." Sango couldn't believe that demons would do such a thing. Especially not to their own kind. "Inuyasha bears a deep hatred for the two. And he made a promise to Shippo that he would avenge his parents."

"Poor kid. That was the same age Kohaku was when we lost our parents." She said quietly to herself.

"Poor kid indeed." Miroku said as he pulled a box from his robe._ Shippo your parents miss you. _He thought as he opened the box. It revealed a ring that, in small writing, said "Shippo we love you very much."

"What is that?" Sango asked as she looked at it.

"It's the last gift from his parents. I am supposed to give it to him when he's seven and that's in a week." He put the ring back in the box and put it back in his robe. _Get to him soon Inuyasha. You know that they'll try to kill him._

Scene change

Inuyasha ran through the forest as fast as he could. He had to reach Shippo before the thunder brothers. He was the only one stopping them from touching him. He couldn't believe that he was so stupid to leave the kid alone. _Please be alive Shippo. I'll be there soon._ _I promise. _He thought as he raced through the forest.

**Fourth chapter is over. And I sort of left it as a cliff hanger too. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible and don't forget to review!**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: don't own Inuyasha

Chapter 5

Inuyasha cut through the dense forest and brush, ignoring the pain that was shooting through his overworked legs. He could feel his heart throb from the constant strain of pumping oxygen throughout his body. A pain soon developed in his chest. It felt like it was going to explode. He cursed his body for being so slow and weak.

_I have to get to him or otherwise the kid won't have a future._ _The kid is going to die unless I get to him! _He thought. The constant thought of the Shippo dieing gave him an even stronger sense of urgency. Even an image of his death crossed through his mind. The image gave him the strength to push his body even harder. His speed drastically increased, but the pain it brought was almost unbearable. _I can't take this much longer. Where is the stupid village?_

"I wonder where Inuyasha and Miroku went to." Shippo said to himself. He sat quietly on the floor of the hut the three where staying in. He tossed several tops onto the ground, watching them twirl around and around making himself dizzy. He sighed heavily. "I'm so bored!" he yelled.

The pounding of floor boards alerted him to the presence of somebody. He looked behind him to where the entrance of the hut lay. For several seconds he looked at the entry way and not seeing anybody he shrugged it off and went back to watching his spinning tops. As he sat there he felt a presence behind him. Quickly he turned around, but found that nobody was there. He stood up and looked outside, and surveyed the area around the hut, but he still didn't find anything.

Taking one final look around he started to head back inside, but soon found something grasp his waist and pull him away. He saw the hut begin to move farther and farther away. Trees and bushes were streaking past him, and the only thing he could think was happening was that he was being kidnapped.

He screamed as loud as he could, only to have something else cover his mouth. Instinctively he bit down on whatever was covering his mouth. His teeth sunk into a tough, calloused, skin.

Inuyasha bit back a yelp. For a little guy Shippo could bite hard. "Hey runt, let go of my hand!" he half whispered-yelled. "I'm here to help you now let go."

Shippo looked up at him, his teeth still buried in Inuyasha's hand, and gave him an odd look. Pulling his teeth out he said. "Saving me from what? I don't think that there is anything that I need to be saved from." He narrowed his eyes at him. "What did you do?"

Inuyasha stopped and put him down before replying. "I did something that's going to cause us some serious problems."

"What kind of problems?" he asked. He noticed that Inuyasha was breathing really hard and that his legs were shaking uncontrollably. "Why are you so tired?"

"I'll answer your questions later. For now we need to get to the cave." Inuyasha picked up the small kit as he started to run again.

Shippo attempted to avoid the branches that flew past him. He couldn't believe the speed that Inuyasha seemed to be moving at. Never before had he seen him run this fast. "Hey Inuyasha, why are you running so fast? It's not like anything is chasing us."

"I told you. I'll tell you later when we get to the cave." He said as he winced. The pain in his legs was becoming overwhelming. His strength was waning and he didn't know how much longer he could keep the pace up. He just hoped that he wouldn't run into any unexpected problems otherwise he was going to have a serious strength disadvantage.

A strange, unusual odor invaded his nose. He nearly choked on the scent. It was hard to breath, and he could feel his speed decline. The pain in his legs grew since they were being even more deprived of oxygen. He was glad though that the kit's sense of smell was not yet fully developed, so he wouldn't be inhaling the noxious odor.

Several seconds passed before the odor disappeared._ Glad that's over with_. He thought.

His speed began to pick up again and he moved through the forest at a lightning speed once again. The odor he smelled smelt strangely familiar, but he couldn't place it. He didn't know what it was, but it smelled like.

His thoughts were cut off as a bolt of lightning cut across him. His eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. _Oh no. _He looked over to where the bolt came from to find a smirking Hiten. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed at him, a glint of anger passing through them.

"Inuyasha, what's your hurry? And what are you doing with the little kit?" Hiten asked, his staff rising behind him. His eyes searched Inuyasha over. He noticed that Inuyasha's wounds hadn't quite healed yet. "I see that your wounds haven't healed. Guess that gives me an advantage. Especially since you seemed to be exhausted. Today looks like the day I'm going to kill you." Hiten laughed evilly.

Inuyasha growled angrily. Putting Shippo down he grabbed the hilt of the tetsusaiga and steeled himself. "Shippo, get out of here. Run as fast as you can to the cave. I'll meet you there when I get done with him." Shippo looked at Inuyasha, a look of uncertainty clearly showing on his face. Inuyasha looked down at him, his look telling him to listen to him.

Hiten grew impatient and charged Inuyasha. Inuyasha quickly drew the tetsusaiga and blocked the oncoming strike. "Run, now!" he yelled as he threw Hiten off. Shippo obliged and took off.

Sparks erupted from the clash between the two. Metal rang while wood splintered. Dust and dirt flew up as they ran across the ground.

Inuyasha stepped back, his legs struggling to stay up. This was not good. He could feel his strength dieing. The tetsusaiga was growing increasingly heavy, and his arms were on fire. He resisted the idea of running away, since chances are he wouldn't get very far before having to turn and fight again. Besides, he couldn't let Hiten think that he was weak and cowardly.

Raising the tetsusaiga Inuyasha attacked. His sword connected with Hiten's staff with a strange ring. He felt a pain shoot through his sensitive ears. He had to resist the urge to cover them. Managing to shake it off he continued to attack Hiten and found that the ring died away with each attack, so he didn't pay anymore mind to it. But he couldn't help but wonder what it was.

Quickly he pulled away to avoid an oncoming vertical slash, but he didn't manage to dodge it in time. A long bloody wound appeared across his right shoulder.

_Dang it!_ He thought. _I'm not going to be able to keep this up much longer. Not only that but I feel a little dizzy. He couldn't have got me that bad._ He felt the pain in his legs increase dramatically. His shoulder began to burn and it was unbearable.

His eyes began to water, and he felt his entire body suddenly heat up. All of the pain that he had was now growing stronger and more painful. He nearly fell over from all of it. He looked up at Hiten to find him laughing.

"What are you laughing at?" he struggled to get out. The pain in his voice only caused Hiten to laugh even more.

"Is it becoming unbearable Inuyasha?" Inuyasha gave him a confused, yet distorted look. He just laughed more. "How can you be so stupid? Do you really think that the pain you're feeling is natural?" Inuyasha's eyes widened.

"What did you do to me?" He said as a new pain erupted in his lungs.

"I'm sure that your heightened senses managed to pick up the ringing right?" Hiten questioned. Inuyasha at first didn't realize what he was talking about. Then he remembered the strange ringing that he had heard when he clashed against his staff. Hiten nodded as he read Inuyasha's pain stricken face. "That ringing is the ring of burning. Once the sound of the ring has entered an open wound it causes an immense burning to erupt in the receiver's body. It's quite painful, as you already know." He said as a dark glint in his eyes appeared, and an evil smirk.

Inuyasha growled at him as much as his body would allow him. _Dang it! I can't do anything. This danged pain isn't allowing me to move. I have to think of something._ He thought as he stared Hiten down. He growled even louder when the smirk on his face grew. Hiten just laughed.

Before Inuyasha could react he suddenly found himself being thrown several feet into the air. As he impacted a tree he tried to understand what had just happened. He hadn't seen or heard anything, so how did he end up lying face down on the ground?

He struggled to look up and found that Hiten was slowly walking toward him. He hated the fact that Hiten was just toying with him. Walking slowly like that so that he was going to try to make him suffer. He just couldn't stand it. The mere fact that he was being toyed with enraged him, and it made it so much that he nearly stood up. Nearly.

Hiten had to take a slight pause in his walk. He was surprised that the half demon had attempted to stand up. The pain he was receiving should've been enough to stop him from trying. He had to give credit to the half breed. He was defiantly stronger than he or anyone else thought. Oh well. He was going to kill him anyway.

Raising his staff he attempted to strike Inuyasha, but was shocked to find that the tetsusaiga had stopped it. He looked down at Inuyasha holding the tetsusaiga with all he had in order to stop him. Hiten smirked.

"So you have some more strength in you I see." He said moving his staff away. "No matter. You won't be able to block the next hit!" He threw down as hard as he could, knocking the tetsusaiga from Inuyasha's hands before slamming the staff into his stomach.

Inuyasha rolled over onto his side, clutching his stomach. Hiten walked over to him and picked him up. "Well I see the little birdie has no strength to fight." He said mockingly. Though a sudden pain in his stomach shut him up.

Looking down he found a claw imbedded in his stomach. Blood poured around Inuyasha's hand. He turned his hand to cause an increase in pain. Hiten was forced to drop Inuyasha in order to remove his claw, but to his dismay Inuyasha was standing on his own.

Inuyasha smirked. "Didn't think that a little pain could stop me did you?" rearing his other hand back he threw his fist into Hiten's face before pulling his other hand out and grabbing his shirt. He then kneed him in the face and threw him into a tree.

A claw slashed down Hiten's back as he was thrown. His grip was lost on his staff so it rolled onto the ground right next to Inuyasha. His eyes widened in horror as Inuyasha picked up the staff.

"Well, you ready to feel your own ring of burning?" He said as he arched the staff above his head. Bringing down the staff he heard it ring as it impacted Hiten's body. He suddenly saw Hiten drop to the ground in pain. "Not very fun is it? Don't worry though. I won't let you suffer for long." He was about to thrust it into Hiten but a lightning blot struck him and he flew into the air before hitting the ground.

"Dang it. So close too." He said as he blacked out.

Kagome was growing anxious. Inuyasha had been gone for almost eight hours. Where was he? She couldn't sit still for much longer, but every time she tried to get up either the pain in her chest or Sango made her stay put. Several times she insisted that they go look for him but Miroku said no. he said that it would be too dangerous. She was about to say something but as if sensing what she was going to say Miroku cut her off.

"Kagome I understand how you feel, but I don't think that Inuyasha would want us to go looking for him with the thunder brothers out there." Kagome opened her mouth to say something but shut it when he started talking again. "Not only that I don't think he'd let any of us live it down if you were hurt even worse."

Kagome's eyes drifted to the ground. She hated this! She hated not being able to move and making people feel like she needed to be protected. She just wanted to scream. She wanted to scream at the two for making her worry like this. She wanted to scream at Inuyasha for running off while she was sleeping and not telling her where he was going and she wanted to scream at herself for being so weak willed that she couldn't take a little pain. She hated it. She hated the ordeal, her weakness, everything. Her fist clenched.

A hand was placed on her shoulder drawing her form her thoughts. She turned to look at Sango giving her a comforting look. It didn't really seem to work although some of the anguish was beginning to disappear.

A loud thud at the opening of the cave caused the three to jump. Both Sango and Miroku stood up quickly and went to go check what it was.

Kagome watched them disappear into the darkness of the cave. She stretched her hearing ability as far as it would go she heard a gasp and the shuffling of feet. Seconds later she saw Inuyasha being carried on the shoulders of Miroku and Sango while being followed by a small little demon.

Kagome's eyes widened. "What happened to Inuyasha?" she said rather urgently.

"He was defending me from Hiten." The little demon said. "He told me to run so I listened. I didn't get very far when I heard that the fighting stopped and went back to see if Inuyasha was alright. He was laying face down on the ground when I got back to him. He looked like he was attacked from behind."

Kagome struggled to stand up. Once she did she limped over to Inuyasha her hand clutching her side. Kneeling next to him she touched the wound that was across his shoulder. She was somewhat surprised to find that it was already healing. A small smile spread across her face.

She turned to the little demon. "What's your name?"

"Shippo." He said his head down.

Kagome's hand reached under his chin, lifting it up. "Hey it's alright. It's not your fault this happened. Inuyasha cares about you, so he is going to do whatever he can to protect you." She said in a gentle voice. "There's nothing you can do about that." She smiled at him. His mood seemed to pick up after that.

"Sango help me move him over to the side of the cave." Miroku said as he picked up Inuyasha. Sango quickly ran over to help him.

Kagome hobbled over to his side. "Inuyasha?" She asked, seeing if he was awake or would acknowledge her in some way. But he didn't.

"He probably won't be awake for a few hours Kagome." Miroku said sitting down on the right of Inuyasha's unconscious form. She nodded.

"I know. I just wanted to see if he would wake up anyway." She leaned up against the wall of the cave, grunting as she did. "Hey Miroku who's the boy?" She asked in a whisper.

Miroku turned his head slightly to get a better look at Shippo. "That is Shippo. He's a kit that Inuyasha and I have agreed to protect and look after."

"Where are his parents?" She saw both Sango's and Miroku's faces darken.

"They were both killed by the thunder brothers for sport." He said, a bit of anger in his voice that wasn't there when he had explained it all to Sango. Sango supposed it was there now since everything that had been pushed down concerning the death of Shippo's parents was starting to reappear.

Kagome looked over at Sango. "You knew this?" Sango nodded.

"He told me before you woke up." She said her eyes traveling toward the small kit. She looked over him; a dark saddened look was shinning over his face. It was a look of loss that the boy must have worn often since his face shaped so well to it. It looked like the fight with the thunder brothers brought out Shippo's fear in them and made him scared he was going to lose someone else.

She shifted her gaze back to look over at Kagome, who had apparently been also looking at him because a small tear was falling down her cheek. Sango gave her a small reassuring smile. Kagome smiled back.

A groan caused the two to quickly look at Inuyasha who seemed to be attempting to get up. Kagome limbed over to him as fast as she could. "Inuyasha are you alright?"

"Yeah perfectly fine." He replied in a sarcastic tone. Kagome was a bit taken back. She hadn't expected that.

"Don't mind the sarcasm Kagome." Miroku said walking over to them. "He has a habit of being in a bad mood when he gets his butt kicked."

Inuyasha glared at him. "Shut up monk."

"See. That remark just proves my point." Miroku gently grabbed Kagome's arm and helped her over to the wall. As he did he looked over at Inuyasha to find him attempting to stand, but could see that a pain in his back was preventing him from doing so. "Need some help?" He asked.

"No." Was Inuyasha's curt answer.

Miroku rolled his eyes at his ignorance and stupidity. _Why must he act like such an idiot?_ He thought as he watched Inuyasha's attempts to stand. Normally he would just let him continue to fail at standing until Inuyasha asked him to stop being an idiot and help him, but this time he decided to do him a favor. After all Kagome looked to be somewhat annoyed from Inuyasha's behavior.

Inuyasha protested angrily as Miroku grabbed his arm and rather roughly drug him next to Kagome. "Miroku I said I didn't need your help!" He yelled.

"Well you were taking to long to get up and I was getting tired of you making a fool of yourself." He replied as he walked toward the back of the cave.

"Where you going?" Sango asked before Inuyasha could say anything back.

"To get some food." He replied.

Sango walked after him. "Let me help."

Kagome watched her retreating figure before turning back to look at Inuyasha who seemed to be pouting. She rolled her eyes. She then looked over at Shippo who seemed to want to stand by himself. "Hey, Shippo what's wrong?" She asked in a gentle voice. He shook his head. He didn't seem to want to talk. She was about to say something but Inuyasha cut her off.

"Kagome leave him alone." She looked up at him.

"Why?"

"He needs to get used to you before he'll talk. No point in talking to someone who won't reply." He said as he stood.

Kagome nodded before realizing that he had just stood. "I thought you couldn't stand."

Inuyasha smirked. "Didn't think that I was really that injured did ya?" Kagome thought a moment before giving him a slow nod. He walked over to Shippo and bent down.

Kagome watched the two talk in whispered voices. Obviously Inuyasha didn't want Kagome to hear what they were talking about since every time Shippo raised his voice he hushed him. She was trying her best to hear what they were saying, but they were talking too low. She hated the fact that they could still hear each other while barely even raising their voice. It made her jealous of their superior hearing, yet sometimes things aren't meant to be heard. So maybe she was better off having human hearing, though she really wanted to know what they were talking about.

She watched Inuyasha give Shippo a playful punch before standing up and walking back over to her, Shippo following.

"So what did you two talk about?" She asked as He sat back down.

"Nothing that concerns you." He replied.

Kagome gave him a skeptical look. "Really? Then why did you say my name?" she didn't actually know if he said her name but maybe it might get a reaction from him and maybe even reveal what they were talking about.

Inuyasha gave her a surprised look. "How did you hear us? I didn't think you'd be able to." Kagome nearly busted out laughing. She hadn't actually thought that they were talking about her nor had she expected him to admit it.

"So then what were you guys talking about?" she asked a lot more interested in what they had recently talked about especially since it was about it was her.

"It isn't any of your business." He replied.

Before Kagome could say anything a smack resounded through the cave. The three's attention was directed to the back of the cave. They saw that Sango walking toward them, her face a little pink. All three of realized what had happened as she came toward them alone.

"I take it Miroku won't be joining us for dinner." Inuyasha said as Sango sat down, and placed the meat over the fire. She just nodded her face coloring even more at the mention of Miroku's name. They couldn't tell if it was anger or embarrassment, but thought it was better to not ask.

Miroku returned about an hour later disappointed that this time he didn't have a meal waiting for him and found that it had been eaten by Shippo.

"Well serves you right pervert." Sango said looking away from him. She really didn't feel like facing him right now. Laying down she rolled over on her side and closed her eyes. "Goodnight."

"Night." The four said in unison.

An awkward silence past between the four only broken by the occasional growl of Miroku's stomach. They stared at the fire all feeling a little uncomfortable from the silence. And getting a little annoyed from the constant growling of Miroku's stomach.

"Miroku will you just go to sleep so we don't have to listen to your stomach any more?" Inuyasha said annoyed.

"Yeah I was just thinking about that. Well goodnight." The three replied with a quick goodnight.

Kagome rested her head on Inuyasha's shoulder. She smiled when she noticed that he didn't stiffen like usual. She supposed that he was getting used to it. That caused a small smile to spread across her face. Her eyes watched the fire but as they did she felt something gazing at her. She turned her eyes at Shippo who was staring at her.

"What?" She asked.

He didn't answer her for a few seconds and he looked as if he was studying her. She was starting to feel a little uncomfortable as he looked at her. She was about to say something but he suddenly yelled, "Hey wait I remember who you are now. You're that human that I saw walking through the forest with the two demon slayers." He then looked over at Sango. "And there's one of them. Inuyasha why are you with humans?"

Inuyasha sighed. He knew that it was going to be hard to explain to the kit what was going on, and he tried of thinking of the simplest way to that wouldn't go to in depth with how he met Kagome. "Because I made a promise Shippo. I promised Kagome that I would protect her and her companions. That's why." Shippo was about to say something but Inuyasha cut him off. "Shippo it'll be easier to explain in the morning and besides I'm not sure that you'll understand. Now let's get some sleep." He rested his head on Kagome's before quickly falling asleep.

Kagome looked at Shippo to find him pouting. She couldn't help but notice that it looked like Inuyasha's and smiled. "Hey you want to know why we're here?" She noticed that his face lightened up, and he nodded, she then proceeded to explain how she and Inuyasha met and why she and Sango were there with him. He seemed to want to skip through how she and Inuyasha met but after that quietly listened.

"Kagome you know that pink orb you mentioned?" He asked.

"Yeah what about it?"

"I heard that Miroku had given it to Kanna." Kagome shrugged.

"So? I don't care about that stupid thing anymore. If I could get my hands on it I would break it." She said anger touching her normally gentle voice. "Well we should get some sleep. Night Shippo."

"Night." He replied.

**Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. Just haven't been in much of a mood to write. And I apologize if this chapter isn't very good didn't have much of a creative spurt. Sorry and I'll try to get the next chapter out soon as possible. Bye.**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: don't own anything

Chapter 6

Kagome awoke feeling a small weight on her lap. She opened her eyes to find a small sleeping Shippo laying on it. She smiled slightly.

She turned her head to look over at Sango and Miroku and was surprised to see that the two were holding each other. She nearly busted out laughing when she saw that Miroku had a strange yet perverted sort of smile on his face. Not only that but Sango seemed to have a look of content. Boy they were both in for a rude awakening.

Kagome sat still for a few minutes, hoping that someone else would wake up so she could have someone to talk to, but that apparently wasn't going to happen. They all appeared to be in a deep sleep. She sighed as she closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep, but her mind wouldn't let her.

The thoughts of how her king had betrayed her were running through her mind. She couldn't believe that she had once thought of him like a father. How could she have been so loyal to a king that was willing to send his servants to death for some stupid new weapon? But something didn't make sense though. The king had never before done such a thing.

She thought back on how the king how acted years earlier. He had always cherished his soldiers and never sent them into a battle they couldn't win or where the casualties would be too high. That was probably the only reason why the humans had managed to last so long. But she also noticed that as time passed her "King" had started to care less and less of the lives of his soldiers. Why was he changing? Was he just getting too old to stay in control of the kingdom? What was going on with him?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Inuyasha began to stir. She felt his head lifted off hers and she was a little happy as a crick was beginning to form in her neck. She turned to look at him and almost laughed at the tired look that was on his face. His eyelids were drooping and he looked like he was in a dream.

"Morning." She said staring at him, trying to not break out into laughter.

"Morning." He replied in a sort of slurred kind of way. He took a massive yawn before leaning back against the side of the cave wall.

"Sleep well?" His response was a slight nod, but she couldn't tell whether it was a yes or a no. "Was that a yes or a no?" She asked again. He responded with another nod though it was still as unreadable as the last one. It appeared to her that Inuyasha was in a sort of trance. Not really paying any attention to his surroundings, and just nodding at whatever she said.

"So you are an idiot." She saw him nod slowly. So her hypothesis was correct.

Kagome's words seeped into Inuyasha's mind after a few seconds then he realized what he had done. "Hey, I'm not an idiot." He almost yelled in her ear.

"Really?" she said in a kind of sarcastic way.

"Yeah really." He replied.

"So then what are you?" Inuyasha opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He closed it not really knowing what to say. "That's what I thought." She turned her head away from him and looked toward the fire. Inuyasha growled slightly and poked her in the stomach.

"Ow." She said as she rubbed her stomach. "What was that for?"

Inuyasha folded his arms before replying. "For calling me an idiot."

"Well it's not my fault you are." She said poking him back.

"Am not." He said poking her.

"Too."

"Not"

"Too". The two continued to poke each other until Kagome suddenly realized something "Inuyasha stop."

"What are you giving up?" He said a smirk appearing on his face.

She shook her head. "No, it's not that." She pushed her hand onto her side. "Notice anything?"

"No, am I supposed to?" He asked.

Kagome shook her head. "You really are an idiot." Inuyasha was about to say something but she cut him off. "I don't feel any pain in my ribs."

"What do you mean you don't feel any pain in your ribs? They shouldn't have healed that quickly." He said as he put his hand on her side. He pushed on her ribs lightly and she didn't even flinch. Inuyasha eyed her suspiciously. "Are you sure that you're not a demon?"

Kagome gave him a lame look. "Oh yeah I'm a demon." She said sarcastically. She shook her head at his stupidity. "Anyway have you ever heard of something like this before?" she said deciding to change the subject.

"No, I haven't." Inuyasha replied. He turned to look at Miroku. "Wake the monk up. Maybe he has?"

"Okay." Kagome said, gently picking Shippo off her lap.

Standing up Kagome felt her legs shake a bit. Not standing on them for a week made it a little hard to walk. Not to mention that her left leg had fallen asleep, making it even more difficult to stand. She tried to shake the kind of stinging feeling in her left leg out but found that it was having little effect. Sighing Kagome half walked half limbed over to Miroku, noticing the perverted sort of smile on his face as he still held Sango.

When she noticed this she thought about waking Sango up and let her beat the crap out of the monk, but since she would have to wait until he woke up again to get any answers she decided against it. So instead she gently kicked Miroku's side.

"Miroku wake up. Miroku." Kagome called. When he didn't wake up she kicked him a little harder and said his name louder but he still didn't wake up. Sighing she took a deep breath and screamed in his ear. "Miroku wake up!" He still didn't budge. She also noticed that Sango wasn't waking up either.

"Didn't realize the she slept so hard." Kagome thought. She then turned her attention back to Miroku. "Hey Inuyasha, do you know how to wake him up?" She asked pointing at Miroku.

"Yeah." He said as he stood up. Walking over to Miroku he bent down to his ear and whispered something in his ear. Almost immediately Miroku shot up frantically searching the cave, his face in a having a perverted look on his face along with a perverted grin.

When he noticed that the thing he had been searching for was not there his smile dropped. "Inuyasha, please do not get my hope's up like that." Inuyasha shrugged.

"Hey it was the only way to get you up." He said walking next to Kagome. "Now do you notice anything different about Kagome?" He asked. He watched as Miroku's eyes peered over Kagome, searching for something different or changed about her even though what he was looking for was right in front of him.

He also noticed that Kagome was beginning to look a little uncomfortable as he continued to stare at her. Though he couldn't quite blame her when a perverted monk was sitting there staring at her.

Several minutes passed and Kagome was growing more and more uncomfortable, and Inuyasha was beginning to lose his patients. His foot began to tap the ground lightly and as seconds passed tapped faster and harder. When another minute passed Inuyasha's patient expired and yelled, "Miroku you can't be that stupid! Do you not see what's wrong with her?"

Miroku turned his attention to Inuyasha. "No Inuyasha I don't." he said dumbly.

Inuyasha shook his head. "How you were one of the smartest people in our village I'll never know." He said to himself. Raising his finger he lightly jabbed it into Kagome's side causing a surprised squeak to erupt from her. "Do you notice anything?"

Miroku shook his head. "No."

"Her ribs aren't broken anymore." He said.

Miroku's head moved up and down in realization. "Oh, yeah that's what I meant when I said that there was nothing wrong with her." he said quickly, clearing his throat. "So is that why you woke me up?"

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at him with disbelief. "Isn't that a little odd?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah it is." Miroku replied.

"Do you know why or how it could've healed that quickly?" She asked.

"No." Inuyasha and Kagome's heads dropped.

"Well a lot of help you are." Inuyasha said sarcastically. He walked over to the cave wall and dropped to the floor. Kagome sat next to him.

The three sat in silence, except for the occasional snore from the two sleepers. The three pondered somewhat how Kagome's ribs could've healed so quickly although Miroku seemed more preoccupied with watching Sango's sleeping figure. Still the time the he did spend thinking about Kagome's increased healing rate had him a little baffled.

It really didn't make any sense. He had heard of demons healing at that increased rate, but for humans that was impossible, unless of course she was a miko, but he shook his head at that. She wasn't a miko. He couldn't sense any energy radiating off her. And even if she was a miko it would take an extremely powerful one to heal at that rate. But then how could she have healed that quickly? it just didn't make any sense.

Then he remembered a passage of a book he once read on mikos: Although most mikos are born with their powers, and begin to show signs of them at about six weeks after birth, the most powerful of mikos don't show any signs of their power until they are about sixteen. And even then the timing is unpredictable to determine when they can actually start to use their powers, or even when they are aware of them.

There have been signs of when a young woman, who has this delayed activation of power, beginning to awaken. They have heightened senses, a sudden ability to sense all demonic energies, humans and those of other mikos, an increase in their archery abilities, and gain the ability to purify.

As Miroku continued to think about what he had read in the passage he found that the words began to fade away. He sighed heavily as he tried to recall the words, but found that it was no use. He was really starting to wish that he had paid more attention to what he read. He knew that the passage had said more on signs and what they could do but he couldn't remember.

He gave up on trying to remember what the passage had reads he tried to think of other ways Kagome could've healed that quickly, but nothing came to mind. He wished that he was back at the village so he could search the library but he wasn't. He searched his memory for anything that could answer the question, and something came to mind.

"Perhaps she's a half demon like Inuyasha?" he thought, but yet again the failure to sense that energy shot that up. He decided it was better to give up on the thought until he could find a place to search for ideas.

"Well since none of us have an obvious answer to this mysterious question I say we put it aside and figure out what we are going to do now." Miroku said as he pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked over to them.

Kagome nodded. "Yeah you're probably right. But I think before we get started we need to wake Sango up." She said.

Miroku put his hand on Sango's shoulder and shook her gently. "Sango wake up." He said. When she didn't respond he said her name again, and shook her a little harder. "Sango wake up." Still she didn't move so he bent down closer to her and spoke loudly in her ear. "Sango wake up!"

Suddenly a loud smack resounded throughout the cave. Miroku looked taken back, and rubbed his cheek gently as he tried to rub the pain away.

"Don't ever get that close again." Sango said a dangerous tone in her voice. As she rose Kagome thought that she saw a slight blush on Sango's cheeks but with only the dim fire light couldn't tell. "What you wake me up for." She asked her attention moving away from Miroku to the other two.

"My ribs are healed." Kagome said happily, but confusion on how was still clear on her face.

"What? How?" Sango asked just as surprised and Kagome was when she realized she was healed.

Kagome shrugged. "Dunno. Just woke up this morning and they were healed, but since no one could think of why or how we decided to think about something else. Like what we are going to do now."

"Good question. What are we going to do now?" Sango asked. The other three shrugged.

The four sat in silence for a few seconds, deciding on what to do. Then Kagome spoke. "Why don't we just keep running?" the others looked up at her. "I mean it's not like we have anything to fight for anymore.

"Yeah but where we would we go?" Inuyasha asked.

"I don't know. Anywhere I guess." She replied.

"The thunder brothers are still after us so before we go anywhere we'd have to kill them first or we'll be harassed for the rest of our lives." Inuyasha said.

Kagome nodded. "Right. Forgot about them." Kagome looked down as she thought about what they could do.

Again a silence over came them. They all thought about what to do and where they could go. But really where could they go? They had all defected in from their own sides and if they went back they would be called traiters and killed. What could they do?

"How did we ever get ourselves into this mess." They all thought.

As they continued to ponder this thing a strange scent caught Inuyasha's attention. He didn't know what it was but he knew that it was strangely familiar. He stood up abruptly causing the three to look up at him.

"Inuyasha what is it?" Kagome asked a slight look of worry on her face.

"I don't know." He sniffed the air, still trying to remember what the scent was. "But what I do know that there is someone or something here." He closed his eyes and focused all of his attention on that one sense, and could barely make out the scent of a demon. "But who is it?" He thought.

For several minutes Inuyasha stood waiting for his mind to start working and figure out what scent he was smelling belonged to. It was so familiar but he couldn't remember whose it was. He could feel frustration building. Whose was it!

Then something hit him. His eyes widened. "Miroku, get Kagome, Sango, and the little runt out of here right now!" He yelled, urgency clearly displayed in his voice.

"Inuyasha what is it?" Miroku asked.

"Sesshomaru." He said quietly.

Kagome saw Miroku's eyes widen as well. "Inuyasha, who is Sesshomaru?" she asked.

When Inuyasha didn't answer she was about to ask again but Miroku answered for him. "Inuyasha's brother." He said. Quickly Miroku picked up Shippo from his sleeping position and grabbed Kagome's and Sango's hands. "Come on! We have to go!" Miroku yelled.

Kagome at first reluctantly moved watching Inuyasha as he waited for some kind of an attack to come. She watched as he tightly gripped his sword his head moved side to side, continuing to do this until he noticed Kagome wasn't moving.

"Kagome get the heck out of here!" He yelled at her. "Now!"

Kagome shook her head. "What about you?" She asked, worry in her voice.

"Don't worry about me! Now get out of here!" He yelled again. When she still didn't move he quickly grew frustrated. "Kagome, I said get out of here!" He saw her shake her head again. "Dang it Kagome listen to me! Leave! Now!"

"But I can't leave you to fight him alone." She said.

Inuyasha stared at her for a few seconds. He couldn't understand why she wouldn't leave. Wasn't she worried that she might get hurt or worse? Did she really think that she could even help him?

He growled lowly. "She's not thinking straight." He thought.

As he continued to stare at her a sudden feeling of danger passed through the pit of his stomach. Quickly he looked back behind him, his eyes directed at the cave wall. He felt that something bad was coming. Then it hit him what it was.

Before Kagome realized what was happening she found herself being pushed backwards, flying through the air. She saw Inuyasha's silver hair glint against the fire's light as she continued to move backwards. She felt his arms hold her tightly and protectively.

Then suddenly a massive wave of energy tore through the cave. The force from the blast threw her to the ground, her head contacting the side of a rock. Almost immediately she felt an aching pain shoot through her head. Her hand reached up to her head, and she could feel a hot liquid run down it.

_Blood._ She thought as the ache in her head grew.

She looked up to find Inuyasha standing in front of her, a look of concern in his eyes. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, wincing slightly as pain shot through her skull.

Inuyasha turned to the now gapping hole in the cave and saw a figure standing in the middle of it. "Sesshomaru." He thought angrily. "Miroku get Kagome and Sango out of here. I've got something to take care of." He yelled.

Quickly Inuyasha pulled out tetsusaiga and aimed it straight at the figure in the light. "Sesshomaru what are you doing here?" he yelled angrily.

"I'm here to kill you." Sesshomaru replied, his voice cold and hard.

Inuyasha growled loudly. "Give me your best shot!"

"Fine." He replied.

Before Inuyasha could react Sesshomaru disappeared and reappeared behind him. What the!" Inuyasha yelled. Quickly pivoting on his heel he managed to avoid the oncoming strike.

"You let your guard down Inuyasha." Sesshomaru said.

"Shut up!" Inuyasha yelled, running at him.

Sword swinging Inuyasha attacked Sesshomaru viscously his blade whistling through the air. Sesshomaru quickly pushed himself backwards avoiding every single strike aimed at him, seemingly effortlessly. Inuyasha continued to swing hoping that maybe he would get lucky and catch his brother, but with his luck he continued to miss.

"Stop moving around!" Inuyasha yelled. As Inuyasha took another swing he found his blade suddenly stopped and the ring of metal against metal resounded throughout the cave. Sesshomaru stood in front of him the toukijin holding off his attack.

Inuyasha growled angrily. With all his strength he pushed against Sesshomaru, but soon found himself being thrown away. Skidding across the ground Inuyasha used his left hand to steady himself before jumping back up and slashing at Sesshomaru. Quickly Sesshomaru avoided the oncoming slash before slamming toukijin into his side.

Inuyasha withheld a yell as he managed to roll out of the way. Blood poured out of the wound. He found himself having a hard time standing and could feel his body begin to weaken. _How could I leave myself that open to an attack? How stupid am I?_ He thought.

"Inuyasha you're even weaker than before." Sesshomaru spoke. "Maybe you've been spending too much time with these humans." His gaze shifted to Kagome, Sango, and Miroku. "They've made you weak."

"Shut up!" Inuyasha yelled. "I'm just holding back!" Inuyasha could feel his right leg begin to shake heavily as he said these words. It was beginning to take great effort to stand.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, her eyes held a strong look of fear and worry. She turned to Miroku. "Miroku, what's going to happen to Inuyasha?" she asked.

Miroku looked down at her noticing how strongly her worry appeared in her eyes. "To be honest Kagome I don't know." He looked up to Inuyasha. "The last time these two fought Inuyasha had barely managed to defeat him, and that was only because he had some how managed to create an amazingly powerful wave of energy that nearly obliterated Sesshomaru. The only reason it didn't was because Inuyasha had done it on accident and Sesshomaru had managed to dodge it, and had it hit Sesshomaru would've been no more."

Kagome nodded but and realized that Inuyasha might not stand much of a chance. "So does that mean Inuyasha's going to lose?"

"Ye- I don't know." Miroku managed to catch himself from saying what he really thought was going to happen.

Kagome looked back at Inuyasha to find that he was struggling heavily to stay standing. _Inuyasha. _

"If you wish to live Inuyasha then I suggest you stop holding back." Sesshomaru said coldly. "And if you do not then I will kill you."

Inuyasha smirked. "Alright then if that's the way you want it." He said grasping tetsusaiga with both hands. He then found that doing so made it even harder to stand. _I'll __have to finish this quickly._ He thought. "Let's go!" Inuyasha yelled.

Running with all his strength Inuyasha swung hard at Sesshomaru causing him to block the oncoming strike. Pushing off him Inuyasha spun to his right and again swung at him again, but only to find that Sesshomaru had managed to block his attack again.

"If this is all you have Inuyasha then I'll kill you right now!" before Inuyasha could react Sesshomaru appeared in front of him and swung at him his blade easily cutting through Inuyasha's coat of the fire rat and the top of his stomach.

Inuyasha quickly backed off, doing his best to avoid every incoming strike but found that his weakened body made it difficult. He could feel the tip of the blade cut into the top of his skin. He had to hold in yelps of pain as he could feel the blade cut deeper and deeper into him as he began to feel his body lose its energy.

_Dang it! So many battles in less then a week have really drained my energy. I can't keep this up. _He thought as he dodged another slash. As he continued to move he grew frustrated at having to constantly having to be on the defensive. He hated having to do this. _Enough is enough_.

Swinging the tetsusaiga Inuyasha deflected toukijin away from him and managed to get his claws into the side of his face. Sesshomaru jumped back for a second. "Not bad, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha smirked weakly, "Thanks."

"But this fight is far from over."

"I know."

"Good then lets continue." Sesshomaru charged at Inuyasha again.

"Just waiting on you!" Inuyasha pulled tetsusaiga in front of him and managed to block the oncoming strike.

Quickly Inuyasha pushed Sesshomaru off and struck back only to have his own attack deflected. Sesshomaru then rounded around him and attempted to hit him in the back. Before Inuyasha had even realized it he had managed to dodge the hit and was able to make a quick slash, with his claws, across Sesshomaru's chest. Jumping back Inuyasha felt his legs suddenly buckle. He then could feel all of his strength suddenly dissipate.

_I'm losing more blood than I thought. I can barely stand. _He thought wearily. Inuyasha then saw his vision begin to go out of focus. It took him several seconds for it to refocus but by that time Sesshomaru had charged at him again and before he could react a toukijin was coming down on him.

Time suddenly slowed as he watched as Sesshomaru came at him with such a speed that he wouldn't even have the time to block the attack. He nearly closed his eyes as Sesshomaru neared but decided to face death and stare it straight in the eye.

As he grew even closer Inuyasha braced himself for the attack that would rend his flesh and slice his bone, and maybe even take his life away, but when it never came he looked at Sesshomaru to find that in between his index finger and middle finger there was a long, straight object in his hands. He couldn't tell what it was for a second until light glinted off its tip.

Inuyasha's eyes widened as he turned over to Kagome. He was surprised yet scared to find her having an arrow aimed at Sesshomaru's heart.

"Hey Sesshomaru, leave Inuyasha alone! He hasn't done anything to you. why do you want to kill him?" Kagome yelled her arm pulling back on the bowstring.

Sesshomaru gave her a cold hard stare. He looked over her. He was surprised that a human would dare stand up to him especially a woman. He didn't expect that. He especially didn't expect her to attack him. _Well it appears these humans do have some courage. _He thought. _Doesn't matter. That still won't save them. _

"Woman." Sesshomaru spoke coldly. "Do you intend to fight me?"

"You didn't answer my question." She replied.

Sesshomaru snapped the arrow between his fingers before he spoke, "What has happened between Inuyasha and I is none of your concern. This is only between Inuyasha and I. Now answer my question do you intend to fight me?"

"If you're going to continue to attack Inuyasha for no reason then yes." She replied. Her eyes linked with his and the two held gazes for several seconds.

_This girl has great courage. It's a shame she isn't a demon. She would've been powerful. _He thought. "Then woman you better prepare." Sesshomaru continued to stare at her. "I'll let you make the first move."

"Fine!" Letting her arrow fly Kagome watched as it impacted his chest, but was surprised to find that he didn't even wince.

Sesshomaru continued to stare at her and found that a look of fear come over her face. He was about to step forward and strike her down but found that a small ache in his chest begin to burn in his chest. He then found that it started to course throughout his entire body. He could feel his blood begin to burn. He looked down at the arrow and was surprised to find that the arrow glowed with a pink aura.

He looked back up at the girl and then back down at the arrow. _She's a miko. How could I not sense that? _He looked over her and then noticed a small aura of spiritual power glow around her. _That's why I couldn't sense it. She's a weak miko._ Then he suddenly noticed that the glow around her increased slightly. Not significantly but enough to notice. _She's getting stronger. Her power must've recently appeared. I'd best kill her now._

Pulling the arrow out of his chest he charged at her. As he raised his sword he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly he stopped and jumped backwards and saw the tetsusaiga slash in front of him.

"Sesshomaru, stay away from her. This fight is between you and me." Inuyasha said as he put the tetsusaiga in front of him.

"Thanks." He heard Kagome say quietly. He nodded in reply.

"Then keep her out of It." Sesshomaru replied.

Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "Listen you need to stay out of this."

"But I can't let you fight him by yourself. You'll die." She said, worry in her eyes.

"I can handle this by myself. I don't need your help."

"But." Inuyasha grabbed her arms.

"No buts!" he yelled. "Kagome I can't risk losi-" he stopped himself. "I can't risk it. Now tell me you'll stay out of this." Kagome stared at him for a second before nodding. "Good." He then turned to face Sesshomaru. "Let's finish this."

"Gladly." The two stared at each other before bringing up their swords and charging at each other.

**Sorry it took so incredible long to write this I've been to busy and preoccupied with other things. And I hope that you don't mind my decision to end the chapter here it just seemed like a good place to stop. Well hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter a lot faster and I apologize again for the wait. Well until the next chapter Bye.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The clash of metal on metal rang throughout the air. Two blades fought against each other both trying to get the edge on the other. They shook with such force sparks began to fly. Then suddenly one of the blades began to inch backwards. It began to shake even more as it struggled to fight back but was quickly losing strength. Finally it was pushed back.

Inuyasha thrust tetsusaiga into the ground before leaning on it. He stared at Sesshomaru his eyes beginning to lose their focus. _I can barely stand. I can't even see him anymore. How am I supposed to beat him this time?_ He thought. _I have no strength left._ He felt his foot slide. Looking down all he could see was red.

Kagome ran forward but found that something had caught on her arm. Looking back she found that Miroku was holding it. "Miroku let me go!" she yelled.

Miroku shook his head. "No Kagome. If I let you go then Sesshomaru is going to kill you."

"I don't care just let me go! I have to get to Inuyasha!" she pulled on her arm trying to free it, but Miroku's grip was to strong. "Let me go!" she screamed. Pulling on it again she managed to break free but was quickly caught again before she could get more than a few feet. "Urgh Miroku!"

"No! You told Inuyasha you would stay out of this so stay out of it!" he yelled back at her. There was much sternness in his voice so much so Kagome stopped.

"But I have to help him." She said quietly looking back to Inuyasha.

"He can take care of himself." Miroku said looking over at him as well.

"How can you say that! He's dieing! Can't you see the blood?" Kagome half yelled, half cried. She looked up at him with worry in her eyes.

"Of course I can see the blood, but we have no choice Kagome. This is a battle between Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. We have to stay out of it." Miroku replied looking down at her.

"I'm not going to accept that!" She screamed. With a sudden burst of strength she managed to free herself from Miroku's grip and began to run to Inuyasha, but stopped when Sesshomaru suddenly appeared in front of him.

Sesshomaru stepped closer to Inuyasha his sword raised. "This is the end for you little brother."

Inuyasha looked up at him weakly, smirking. "Then what are you waiting for? Brother?" Inuyasha gripped the tetsusaiga tightly.

"Nothing." Sesshomaru swung, and Kagome's heart stopped.

There was silence throughout the cave. Nothing but pure heart-wrenching silence. Kagome's eyes were wide, her hands trembling. The bow in her hand fell and clattered loudly against the ground. She could feel her legs buckled and she collapsed. She felt her heart crack as she looked at Inuyasha's body which now lay on the ground. Blood pooling all around his body.

She then directed her gaze up to Sesshomaru and felt her heart, mind, body and soul become enraged. Picking herself up she grabbed her bow from off the ground pulled an arrow from her quiver and took aim.

"Sesshomaru you die now!" Pulling back on the bowstring Kagome let loose her arrow.

Pink aura surrounded the arrow as it flew toward Sesshomaru. The size of the aura seemed to increase as it neared him until it grew to the size of the tetsusaiga's tip. Then with its massive energy wave it reached him but only to be dodged by the demon, but as he dodged the arrow he found that two more had been fired at him.

Sesshomaru quickly managed to sidestep the two and barely managed to avoid a third that seemingly came out of no where, and somewhat to his surprise a fourth arrow had been fired right after the third.

Quickly he tried to sidestep the arrow and did, but some unknown force suddenly pushed him back into it. Twisting Sesshomaru managed to move his body out of the way but was unable to move his arm out of the way.

"Got you." Kagome said happily.

An excruciating pain shot through his arm as he could feel it begin to be purified. He could feel his arm disintegrate. He could feel the pain grow as the purification moved deeper and deeper into his arm until he could feel his entire arm burning. Then suddenly the pain disappeared.

He could feel blood begin to pour out of his shoulder. _That human witch is going to pay_ _for this. As is Inuyasha_. Looking down Sesshomaru found Inuyasha smirking.

"How'd it feel?" He asked his smirk growing bigger. Sesshomaru slashed at Inuyasha causing him to jump away.

Kagome's eyes widened as she watched as Inuyasha jump away from Sesshomaru. "How, w-what. He's alive?" Kagome could hear Miroku, Sango and Shippo whisper their own questions.

"Inuyasha you should be glad that you managed to dodged that strike and that this human was so quick to fire her arrows. Even though you told her to stay out of it." Sesshomaru said a touch of anger in his normally emotionless voice.

Inuyasha nearly laughed. "Well I can't exactly say I'm disappointed that she didn't keep her word."

"And since she didn't keep her word she has now become involved in this fight." Sesshomaru said his eyes shifting to Kagome. Inuyasha's eyes widened.

"Kagome." He said quietly. Cursing under his breath Inuyasha quickly ran toward the tetsusaiga. Grabbing the hilt he pulled it out of the ground and ran toward her, but he saw white flash past him with speed he couldn't hope to match. "Kagome run!" He yelled, but by the time she heard him Sesshomaru had appeared in front of her his sword raised.

"You die now you retched human!" Kagome looked up at him her eyes full of fear. The bow dropping out of her hands.

"Kagome no!" Inuyasha screamed. "Sesshomaru get away from her!" He yelled again. He pushed his body to go faster but knew he would not be able to get there in time. He could feel adrenaline pump through his veins to make him go faster, but he knew he would yet again be too late to save someone he cared for. Suddenly a pulse of energy reverberated off of the tetsusaiga. He stopped running and looked down at it and felt that the pulsed was very familiar. He then realized what it was.

"Hey Sesshomaru!" He yelled. "Remember this!" Inuyasha swung the tetsusaiga down releasing a massive wave of golden energy that headed straight for Sesshomaru.

Kagome watched as the wave headed for Sesshomaru and then realized it was heading for her as well. Turning about she ran away from the wave and then felt an arm grab her waist and pull her away.

The wave passed over Sesshomaru like a tidal wave over a house and his standing form seemed to be completely engulfed in it. It seemed as if his form disintegrated from the immense and shear power of the wave, and it appeared as thought it had enough power to crush every living and nonliving thing in its path. The five watched it move in awe.

The wave continued to travel forward until it slammed into the side of the cave causing it to stop and eventually dissipate, but not before leaving a thirty foot long crater.

Inuyasha looked over at where Sesshomaru stood and found nothing stood but a pile of rubble and ash. Walking over to the spot Inuyasha bent down and put his hand into the ash before picking it up and sniffing it. _Dang it, I missed him. Just got a piece of his clothes and maybe a little bit of his tale._ Inuyasha laughed at the thought. _I guess that means we'll meet again. Crap._

Standing Inuyasha turned to the small group huddled next to the cave wall. "I missed." He said laughing.

They looked at him in surprise. "Inuyasha you missed?" Miroku asked. "You mean Sesshomaru is still alive?" Inuyasha nodded.

"Wow, Inuyasha you have to have the worst aim to miss anything with something so big." Shippo said teasingly.

"Shut up you little runt. It was the first time I've ever done that." Inuyasha yelled sheathing the tetsusaiga as he did.

"Actually Inuyasha that was your second time." Miroku put in.

Inuyasha glared at him. "Shut up Miroku you're not helping." Miroku shrugged. "Besides I bet none of you could aim any better then that anyway."

"Actually Inuyasha. "Kagome said. Inuyasha turned to look at her. "I shot my first arrow better than that. I managed to hit the side of the bull's-eye." Inuyasha growled loudly.

"I save all of you and this is how you repay me!" Inuyasha yelled. "Some friends you are."

Kagome looked at him. "We're just messing with you Inuyasha. Relax"

Inuyasha crossed arms. "Whatever." Kagome shook her head.

Inuyasha then suddenly felt weariness and exhaustion take over his body. Feeling his legs shake fiercely Inuyasha kneeled down to prevent himself from falling and hitting the ground below.

The five looked down at him. "Inuyasha what's wrong?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah you really don't look so well all of a sudden." Sango said.

He shook his head. "It's nothing." He replied. Inuyasha felt another wave of weakness come over him and as the adrenaline stopped flowing though him he could also feel how much the loss of blood was affecting him. Suddenly he fell forward.

"Inuyasha." The four said in unison, all running to him.

"He's lost a lot of blood. We need to get him somewhere safe." Sango said, noting the small pools of blood scattered about the cave floor.

"But the question is where?" Shippo asked.

"I don't know but wherever it is we need to leave now. The demons know where we are and no doubt they and the thunder brothers are heading this way." Miroku said. Kneeling down he tore the sleeve off his robe and began wrapping it around Inuyasha's waist.

Kagome looked down at Inuyasha's weak form. He looked as though he could barely move and his face was growing increasingly pale. _Why did he suddenly collapse? He looked fine a couple of seconds ago._ Kagome looked down at him with worry.

"I got it!" Sango yelled causing Kagome to look up at her.

"Got what Sango?" Kagome asked.

Sango turned to look at her. "I know where we can take him."

The four ran down a small narrow path carrying Inuyasha on a make shift stretcher. Shippo sat on Inuyasha's stomach cleaning his wounds while rebandaging several others. "I don't need to be carried. I can walk fine on my own." He said weakly.

Shippo put a wet rag on one of Inuyasha's wounds before replying, "Inuyasha this is not the time to act like mister tough guy. Be quiet and let us take you to Sango's village." He quickly tied the rag onto Inuyasha's body.

Feeling the wetness from the rag Inuyasha leaned his head forward for a second before slamming back down onto the stretcher. "Shippo how exactly did you wet that rag? We didn't have any time to get water."

"I spit on it." Shippo replied.

Inuyasha raised his head and gave and glared at the kitsune. "You what? Shippo I'm going to kill you."

Shippo tied another rag to him. "Shut up Inuyasha, in you condition I could easily beat you." Inuyasha gave a low growl. "Besides my spit helps wounds heal quickly." Inuyasha growled again before laying his head back down.

"Sango are you sure it's wise to go to your village?" Kagome asked. "If we return now you know we'll be branded as traitors. Your family may turn us in."

Sango shook her head. "No they won't. My village no longer trusts the king. He sent many of the demon hunters on suicide raids against several demon lairs a year ago causing many of my people to be killed. Over half of the village men are gone and a quarter of the village women too because of him. My people haven't trusted him since."

Kagome's eyes widened. "Sango I'm sorry. Why have you never told me of this before? And why have I never heard of this?"

"The king's council decided to keep the raids secret from the public because of the tremendous loss. They knew it would demoralize the people and the armies." Sango looked back at Kagome sadness in her eyes. "I never told you about this because I knew how much you loved the king." Sango smiled weakly at her before turning forward again.

Kagome's eyes lowered. Pain and anguish settled in her heart. Her beloved king had sent so many people to their death and it seemed he didn't care because after that there had been the Battle of the West. The suicide attack on the great fortress of the Western lands. Where over seventy five thousand soldiers had lost their lives out of the seventy six thousand that were sent their, and only five hundred returned.

With her free hand she touched a small badge on her upper back. She traced the words that were written on it. She had read it so many times she had memorized it. Survivor of the Great Western Battle honorary service badge. She lowered her hand away from the badge and her fist tightened in anger. Her king was going to pay for all the lives he had sent to die. She was going to make sure of that.

"Sango exactly how many people were in your village at that time?" Miroku asked his voice snapping Kagome out of her thoughts.

"About five hundred thousand." Sango replied.

"And after the raids?"

"Around two hundred and seventy five thousand." She said quietly, sadness carried throughout her voice.

Miroku's eyes widened. "I'm sorry as well."

"Me too." Shippo said quietly. Sango nodded and smiled at them.

The rest of the run was silent, except for the occasional grunt from Inuyasha when Shippo pressed down on one of his wounds to hard. All of them were deep in thought. Each thinking of answers to their own questions. The two girls though had a similar thought on their mind, what had happened to their once beloved king.

Their trek came to stop when the view of a massive wooden wall came into focus. "Finally we're here." Sango said happily.

Miroku, Shippo and Inuyasha scanned the outside of the village and found many, many towers. As well as a long wide trench running on the outside of the wall, and what looked to removable blocks of wood in the walls. There were also many mini bunkers in between the trench and the wall, and lastly there were also many wooden stakes in front of the bunkers and what looked to be the main gate.

"Sango you call this a village? It looks more like a fortress." Miroku said. "How high are these walls?" he asked in awe.

"They're about fifty feet high. Filled with many pressure mines and removable wood blocks that are archers can shoot through." She said happily and proudly. "Come on." She motioned them to move forward with her hand. "Hey Kagome can you handle the back by yourself." Kagome nodded. "Good now you guys have to follow my lead. There are many pressure mines in the ground. You step on one of them and you'll be impaled by at least three wooded stakes."

"Right." Miroku and Kagome replied. Kagome looked down at Shippo to find him cowering on Inuyasha's head.

"Hey runt, get off my head." Inuyasha's muffled voice was barely heard from under Shippo's body.

"No, your thick head should protect me from any stakes." Shippo said fear in his voice.

"You're right about that Shippo." Miroku said. "His head is probably the safest place to be right now." A low growl rumbled beneath Shippo causing him to jump. Kagome smiled at their behavior.

Following Sango's footsteps they managed to get through the mine field without any incidents. Except for the smack of Sango's hand hitting Miroku, who had somehow managed to get his hand on her backside with out causing Inuyasha to be unbalanced.

"Hey Tokira can you open the gate?" Sango yelled.

A large man came out from one of the towers in front behind the gate and looked down at her. "Sango?" His eyes widened. "Sango you're alive!" He yelled. "How?"

"I'll tell you later just please open the gate. My friend is injured." The man nodded before disappearing.

"Tell me Sango how do they open this gate?" Miroku asked. "It looks to heavy to be opened by humans."

Sango pointed to a river on her left. "We use the river to push a large water wheel which runs a pulley system to lift the gate. Thankfully we leave next it or most of these fortifications wouldn't be possible, nor would our way of life. That river helps us to make the weapons we have. The riverbed is full of rare metals and minerals that when combined with demon bones are unbreakable." The four nodded.

"But don't you think you're relying too much on the river?" Inuyasha asked.

Sango nodded. "We have no choice. That's why it's the most heavily defended area in the village."

Suddenly the gate began creaking and it slowly opened up like a massive jaw. They all looked up as it soared high above their head. Quickly they ran inside before whatever was supporting it snapped. As they walked in the gate suddenly shut behind them with a loud smack causing them all to jump.

Tokira quickly ran down the huge tower he was in and grabbed Sango in a tight embrace. "Sango we thought he had died when you never came back from your mission."

"I'm sorry to worry you uncle." Sango pulled out of the embrace and turned to the others. "Guys this is my uncle Tokira."

"Hi." The three boys said quietly.

"Hello." He replied a bit of harshness in his voice as he saw Inuyasha and Shippo.

"Hello Tokira, long time no see." Kagome said looking up at him.

Tokira looked at her for a second trying to remember if he recognized her then it hit him. "Kagome? Little Kagome?" she nodded. Tokira ran to her and hugged her for as second before pulling back and taking a look at her. "My, it's been what eight years since I've seen you. And you've grown to be a fine young woman."

Kagome cleared her throat before speaking, "Thank you." A bit of embarrassment in her voice.

Tokira turned back to Sango. "Sango come quickly your father will be wanting to know your safe." Leading Sango forward Tokira leaned down to her ear. "Sango why do you travel with demons?" there was bitterness and anger in the man's voice.

"Uncle don't worry those two are not dangerous to us or any of the villagers." She said looking back. "It's the monk you have to worry about." Tokira raised an eyebrow. "I'll explain later. Just trust me about the demons."

"Alright I will but you'll have to tell your father why your with them." He said.

"I know. I'll tell the two of you at the same time okay?" Tokira nodded. "Now go tell father I'm home, and not to worry about the demons."

"Okay." He said before running off.

"Why do I somehow get the feeling he doesn't trust me?" Inuyasha asked.

"You are a demon Inuyasha. They hunt demons. We're at war with demons. Obviously they're not going to trust you right away." Kagome said. "Just give them time." Inuyasha grunted.

Several minutes later the group arrived at a large house where ten men stood in front of. Eight of them wore armor and had several weapons spread about their person. The other two were Tokira and next to him what they guessed to be Sango's father.

"Father!" Sango yelled sprinting toward him. She ran into him and hugged him tightly.

"Sango I thought I had lost you." He said happily hugging tightly as well. "When Kohaku came back alone I thought you had died."

Sango shook her head. "Nope thanks to Inuyasha and Miroku we were saved." She said pointing both of them.

Sango's father looked up and walked over to them. "You two have my thanks." he said. He looked down at Inuyasha. "You are half demon are you not?"

"Yeah what's it to ya?" he said.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded.

"No Kagome its fine he's entitled to say whatever he wants. But it is just surprising to see any half demons left I thought that they had all been killed by the great purg-" He was cut off by a glare from Inuyasha. Telling him not to finish what he was going to say. "I understand. I'm sorry."

Turning about Sango's father hugged Kagome in an embrace just as tight as he hugged Sango before pulling back. "Tokira told me how much you had grown and at how beautiful you were and I must say I agree with him."

Kagome's face turned somewhat red. She wasn't used to all the compliments. "Thank you." He smiled at her before walking off.

"Father where is Kohaku?" Sango asked.

"We sent him off to the secret village. The king was constantly hounding us to give him up because they said he was a traitor. Of course we didn't believe them especially after what Kohaku told us so never gave him up. We told the messengers to tell the king that Kohaku had run away and we don't know where he went, and they seemed to believe us." He replied.

"Good then he's safe." Sango said with much relief. "But what are you going to do about us?"

"We'll talk about that tomorrow. For know lets get you guys cleaned up and take care of your friend's wounds." He said he motioned for two of the guards to take Inuyasha's stretcher and lead the other four into a small hut.

"Hey Sango I'm gonna go with Inuyasha. I'll see you later okay?" Kagome said starting to follow the guards.

Sango nodded. "Okay I'll see you later. Bye."

"Bye." Kagome turned around and ran to catch up with the guards.

**Well finally that chapters done and this time it didn't take me nearly as long to get it up thankfully. Now if you guys have anything to make some suggestions on please tell me so read and review! And one question did they even have water wheels back then?**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: don't own Inu.

Kagome sat next to Inuyasha's stretcher as a young woman removed his armor, his fire rat coat and his shirt underneath causing Kagome to blush and look away. Inuyasha smiled slightly at her reaction. "Well glad to see you're very modest."

"Shut up." She said trying to hide her blush.

Inuyasha laughed at her embarrassment. "Fine, but only because you asked so nicely."

"Whatever." She said quietly. "I'm gonna stand outside." Standing up Kagome walked through the open door and found that a soft breeze was blowing. She found it rather refreshing after being stuffed up in a cave for who knows how long.

Sitting down she looked up at the now setting sun and found the splash of orange and red against the clouds and sky made it one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. She smiled slightly as she watched the sun sink lower and lower into the mountains. She loved watching the sunset. She just wished that she had someone to watch it with. She looked back at Inuyasha and then quickly looked forward and shook her head.

_What the heck am I thinking? _She thought._ He's a bit of a jerk with a rude side who probably doesn't even care about a sunset. He wouldn't even want to sit with me and watch it go down. I doubt he would even really want to sit with me at all, but then again he did sit with me in the cave. Probably just for support or to be nice. Then there was also the things he said during the fight with Sesshomaru. _Kagome slapped herself out of her thoughts. "What the heck is wrong with me? Why am I even thinking about him!" she yelled not realizing she yelled it out loud.

"Who are you thinking about?" Inuyasha asked as the woman nursed the gapping wound on his side where Sesshomaru delivered his first strike.

Kagome let herself fall to the side and land softly on the wooden walkway before replying. "No one I want you to know."

"Why?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Because you don't need to know." She replied.

"Why?" He asked again.

"I said you don't need to know."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why."

Kagome let out a sigh before replying, "Because Inuyasha it's personal and I don't want anyone to know what I think especially when I'm thinking about some guy."

"Alright have it your way. Ow hey could you be a little gentler. I'm injured here." Inuyasha said as the woman pour an odd liquid onto his wounds. "And what is that?"

"This is a special herb liquid. It helps heal severe wounds quickly and keeping it from getting infected." The woman replied as she continued to pour the liquid over him.

"But I'm a half demon I already heal quickly." Inuyasha said.

The woman nodded. "I know that, but whatever made these. "She pointed at his wounds. "Was extremely evil. It is causing your demonic blood to slow the healing process. It is too busy trying to rid your body of the evil aura to heal, so to help this herb medicine will take care of that enabling your body to fight the aura with all strength. And the sooner the aura disappears you will feel your strength slowly, but until then you are bedridden."

Inuyasha looked at her in disbelief. "What do you mean bedridden? I'm not going to sit here for the next week or however long it takes for these wounds to heal. I'm not going to bea hapless victim of some demon."

"You won't be. This village is well defended. It would take an army of several hundreds of thousands of demons to take this village." She said proudly.

Inuyasha gave her another look of disbelief. "There is an army of at least three hundred thousand in the southern lands that is the smallest army of the entire empire. The largest is at least three million."

Both Kagome and the woman looked at Inuyasha with their own looks of disbelief. "Inuyasha that's twice the size of our largest army." Kagome's look of disbelief soon turned to fear and worry. "We don't stand a chance."

Noticing Kagome's fearful look Inuyasha quickly added, "But don't worry the demons don't know how large the humans' armies are so won't be making any moves against them. Not only that but the humans have more assets then they do so if they did attack their armies would be completely destroyed or several damaged. They would probably be of no use again." Inuyasha gave Kagome a weak but reassuring smile.

Kagome smiled weakly back at him feeling a little better but there was still fear displayed in her eyes. "Well I suppose that's good." Inuyasha nodded.

The woman quickly shook her away from her worries and returned to work but was much less focus and often poured to much liquid on him causing him to yelp in pain. "Hey lady will you watch what you are doing! You're doing more damage to me than that stupid aura is doing to me!" he yelled.

Kagome laughed at his reaction and felt her heart lighten a bit. The pounding of footsteps turned her attention to an approaching figure that she could barely make out as it grew darker. "Hey Sango what's up?" she asked.

"My father reserved one of the hot springs for just the two of us so we could clean up." She said happily.

"Oh yes. I've been dieing to get all this blood and dirt off me." She said seemingly ecstatic about taking a bath. She started to get up and walk away but stopped and turned back to Inuyasha. "Hey you gonna be alright by yourself?" she asked.

Inuyasha scoffed. "Of course I'm gonna be okay. I can take care of myself."

Kagome smiled at him. "I know you can. I'll see you later okay?"

"Yeah yeah." As he heard them quickly walk away he yelled out to them. "Hey watch out for the monk!"

"Okay!" he heard her yell back.

Inuyasha smiled as he looked out into the night sky. "That girl is strange." He said quietly.

"The way your smiling makes me think you care for her greatly." Inuyasha looked over at the woman.

"What's it to ya?" He said.

"Nothing just that love is so grand." She said happily and dreamily.

Inuyasha's face turned red. "There is no love between me and Kagome!" he yelled embarrassment growing more and more across his face.

The woman smiled brightly at him. "Okay whatever you say."

"Humph, whatever." Inuyasha folded his arms across his chest and looked away from her.

Kagome stuck her foot into the water checking to make sure it wasn't to hot before removing her clothes and dunking her entire body into the water. "Ah this feels so good." She said happily.

"Yep." Sango agreed as she stepped in.

Kagome put her back to the side of the hot spring and rested her head against a small rock before letting out a heavy sigh. "It feels so good to just get those dirty clothes off." She sat silence waiting enjoying the piece and quiet. "Hey Sango?"

"Hmm?"

"Your father does have a replacement wardrobe for us right?"

"Yep." Sango replied.

"Good, I'd hate to have to get back into those clothes." Kagome said a look of disgust across her face.

Sango nodded. "Yeah I agree."

Sango leaned back against the hot spring's side and looked up into the night sky watching the seemingly endless stream of stars stretch across it. She made out the shapes and figures that she had memorized from all the nights before. She loved how brightly they shined. It seemed that even in the darkest of times they shined bright. Even when it seemed that there was no way to forget a troubled past, when it looked as though you could never make up for a heart breaking mistake the stars always seemed to show you that you could. Because every night they were shining through the darkness being guides and small little reassurances that no matter how dark it is you can always see through it.

She smiled slightly at this thought and turned her gaze away from the stars. She then looked over to Kagome and suddenly remembered the battle against Sesshomaru.

"Hey Kagome?" She asked.

Kagome leaned her head forward and looked at her. "Yeah?"

"You know I was thinking and I just remembered, while you were fighting Sesshomaru you suddenly showed a display of incredible miko power why didn't you ever tell me you had them?" Sango asked.

Kagome gave her a confused look. "Sango what are you talking about? What do you mean miko powers?"

Sango now looked confused. "What do you not remember?"

"No I don't. I never had any miko powers nor will I ever have them. Sango are you okay?" Kagome replied an even more confused look on her face.

Sango took a second to look over Kagome to make sure she wasn't joking or just messing with her, but found that there was no sign. _How can she not remember? That was one of the most awesome display of power that I've ever seen. It wasn't something that you could easily forget._ Sango thought.

"No, Kagome I have to ask if you're okay. I don't understand how you could've fortgottenusing miko powers. It was a scene hard to forget." Sango said worry now replacing confusion.

"Sango are you sure?" Kagome asked.

Sango nodded her head. "Yes absolutely."

Kagome looked down into the water her face showing more and more confusion as well as worry. She could remember the fight with perfect recollection, but couldn't remember anything about miko powers. She could feel worry build in her chest as she tried to remember anything of miko powers, but couldn't.

Sango read Kagome's worried look and swam to her side. "Hey Kagome it's alright. I'm sure there is a reason why you can't remember. We'll ask Miroku and Inuyasha if they can think of anything okay." Sango gave Kagome a reassuring smile.

"Okay Sango." Kagome smiled back at her.

"Come on. It's time for dinner." Sango said, standing up. Kagome soon followed her.

A figure stood upon the roof, the figure's identity concealed by the darkness, and watched as the two girls stood up. "Now this is what I've been waiting for." He said pervertedly.

Another figure stood upon the roof and quietly and stealthily walked up to the other and right when it was next to his head screamed, "Miroku you better not be spying on Kagome or Sango!"

Miroku jumped several feet into the air and turned to look at what had scared him. He looked around for several seconds until he finally looked down to find Shippo angrily looking up at him. "Oh hi Shippo." He said nervously. "W-what are you doing out here?"

"Making sure you're not up to your perverted ways again." Shippo eyed Miroku suspiciously.

"Oh Shippo what could ever make you say such a thing?" He asked innocently.

Shippo put his finger up to his chin and acted as though he was thinking. "Hmm. I don't know maybe because you're on a roof overlooking the hot springs!" He yelled.

Miroku looked hurt. "Shippo your accusation wounds me. I'm doing nothing but making sure they were protected." He said honorably.

Shippo thought for a moment beforelooking up at him apologetically. "Miroku I'm sorry. I never should have doubted you."

Miroku smiled at him. "It's alright Shippo. It was an easy mistake. Just try not to do it again."

"You know Miroku just because I accused you wrongly I want to help you down." Shippo said a forgiving look on his face.

Miroku's smile grew bigger. "Thank you Shippo."

Shippo's smile suddenly changed and an evil one took the forgiving ones place. "You're welcome." Shippo suddenly attacked Miroku and kicked him off the roof. As Miroku plummeted down from the twelve foot high roof Shippo wiped his hands and said, "Serves you right you jerk."

Miroku sat up his hand rubbing his chin. "Ow, I was hoping the kid wouldn't see through act." His head dropped. "Oh well, the kid is to smart for his own good." Suddenly Miroku felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

His body stiffened and slowly, ever so slowly he turned around and to his horrified surprise found two fully clothed girls andtwo pairs of glaring eyes aimed at him. He swallowed hard. "Hi Sango, Kagome." He laughed nervously.

"Hi Miroku." Sango said a devilish look crossing over her face. Her hands were clenched into tight fists.

Miroku looked over at Kagome to find that she had a similar posture about her. "I suppose there is no way of explaining why I was on the roof is there?" Both women shook there heads. "Well than please be gentle."

Sango's smile widened. "No problem." She then cracked her knuckles causing Miroku to swallow hard again.

He watched helplessly as the two girls walked slowly toward him both of them flexing their hands. _Shippo you're going to pay for this. _He thought. _If I live to see tomorrow, and if not then I'll haunt you till the day you die. _As the girls grew closer Miroku looked upon them in fear and closed his eyes.

Inuyasha's sensitive ears picked up the sound of muffled screaming and the sounds of breaking bones. Inuyasha quickly sat up and then regretted it when pain shot through his body. He looked out thedoor to see if whatever was causing it was in his line of sight, but found that it wasn't. Then he suddenly heard the words "you stinking pervert" and then it all came to him.

_Miroku. _He rolled his eyes. _He should know better than to spy on two combat experienced women. _He thought. _They're going to kick the crap out of him. _Inuyasha lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. Feeling very bored.

Ever since that woman had left and stopped embarrassing him to death he was now bored out of his skull. Grant it he'd rather be bored to death than have that woman constantly talk about the nonexistent love life between him and Kagome. He never had been so embarrassed in his life. He was glad Kagome hadn't been there or she also would've been embarrassed to no end, and therefore making his embarrassment far worse. What was wrong with that woman anyway?

The sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts. He looked over at the door to find a very satisfied Kagome and Sango walk through the door. He was surprised to find them dragging an unconscious bruised and battered Miroku through the door. He looked up at both of them with a very confused look on his face.

"You didn't leave him there?" He asked.

"No." Kagome replied. "We thought it better that we be nice and not let him become a victim to anymore angrywomen."

Inuyasha shook his head."Personally I just would've left him there. He deserves it anyway."

"Maybe, but we're not as mean as you are Inuyasha." Sango said sitting down on the far side of the room.

"Hey! I'm not mean." Inuyasha said a little insulted. "What have I done to be mean?"

Kagome looked up in thought. "Well if I named all the times it would take me all night."

"Very funny." Inuyasha looked away from her.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Inuyasha you're much too sensitive."

Inuyasha folded his arms across his chest. "Keh, whatever." Kagome rolled her eyes again.

Kagome walked next to Sango and sat down. Then leaned over to her and whispered. "Never thought I'd see a guy so sensitive did you?"

Sango shook her head. "No I didn't. It is definitely a surprising."

"I can hear you ya know." Inuyasha said irritation in his voice.

Kagome silently laughed. "I know, that's the point." Inuyasha growled lowly.

Sango pointed at him. "You know he's been doing that a lot lately." A small laugh erupted from her.

"Where's Shippo or a conscious Miroku when you need them?" He asked himself. The sound of laughing from behind him caused him to turn his head around. "What are you two laughing about?" He asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Sango said a smile on her face.

Inuyasha glared at them before turning his head away from them. _I'll never understand women. _

The pounding of footsteps and the smell of food caused him to nearly sit up; the only thing that stopped him was another wave of pain shoot through him. "Well it's about time some food got here. I haven't eaten since who knows how long." He said nearly drooling at the thought of a meal.

"Just don't eat it all Inuyasha." Kagome said laughing at the look on his face. "We have gone just as long without food as you."

"Yeah, yeah whatever." He said smelling the food get closer.

Several seconds later a line of servants walked through the door caring large bowls of fish, rice, chicken, beef and many, many other different foods.

The three's eyes bulged. They stared hungrily at the food. "Is this all for us?" They asked in unison.

One of the maids nodded. "Yes, milady. Your father wanted to make sure that you had a proper homecoming meal forreturning home safely as well as thanks to the young men that saved you." The maid motioned for the others to set the food down in front of them. "Enjoy your meal milady." She bowed at Sango before turning to bow at Inuyasha and Kagome, and then quickly walked out. The others followed suit.

Inuyasha salivated as he looked at the food. "You know it's too bad Miroku is knocked out and Shippo is out somewhere because now it leaves more for us." His eyes scanned the bowls deciding which to eat first.

Kagome looked around for a second before asking, "Where is Shippo anyway?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Don't know, probably trying to flirt with some girl." Making his decision Inuyasha grabbed a smaller bowl from a stack and stuffed it with everything.

Looks of worry crossed the girl's faces. "Inuyasha, Shippo doesn't "flirt" like Miroku does. Does he?" Sango asked.

"No." he replied. He heard both girls let out a sigh of relief. "Now come on over her and eat before I change my mind and eat it all by myself." With that both girls quickly ran over and began stuffing their faces.

Inuyasha watched them with surprise and shock. He watched them scarf down the food at a pace he'd never seen. It was almost like watching himself. "What has gotten into you two?" He asked.

"Nothing." Kagome replied. "Just have to make sure you don't eat all of it."

He continued to watch them in awe as he continued to fill bowl with food. "You're going to regret that later you know that right?"

Kagome shrugged. "It's better than having you eat everything."

"Suit yourself." He said as he began to eat.

Minutes past and slowly the food in all the bowls dwindled until there was almost nothing left. There was only enough for a small little kitsune. Kagome sighed heavily and fell over onto her back and rubbed her stomach.

"Ah, that was a good meal." She said contently. "Except I think I over ate."

"Yeah me too." Sango agreed.

"I told you not to eat so much." Inuyasha said, finishing his last bowl. Setting it down he sighed happily and felt a wave of sleepiness take him over. He closed his eyes and was beginning to drift into sleep until a loud groan disturbed him. "Well I guess that means Miroku's awake."

Miroku's head lifted up off the ground and he blurrily looked around the room until his eyes focused on two glaring women. He jumped in fear. "Oh come on ladies, you still can't be mad at me." Their glares hardened. "Okay, maybe you can be." He looked away from them and looked over at the bowls of food. "Hey you guys already ate without me?"

"You were knocked out. We're not going to wait for you to get up and let our food get cold." Inuyasha replied.

"Well did you at least leave some for me?" He asked hopeful.

"No."

Miroku eyed the little bit of food left in the bowl. "Then what is that?"

"That." Inuyasha pointed to the food. "Is for Shippo."

Miroku's mouth dropped. "Why did you leave food for him and not me, and where is he anyway?"

"We left it for him because Shippo isn't a stinking pervert." Sango said continuing to glare at him. "And we assume Shippo is flirting with a girl, the correct way." She put an emphasis on the word correct.

"Well I suppose that makes sense." He said trying to avoid her glare, but could still feel it on him. "Okay you assume he is with a girl, but are you sure?"

"No, but you and I both know that he can take care of himself." Inuyasha replied shaking his head.

"Very true." Miroku looked down sullenly and felt his stomach grumble.

Kagome leaned over to Sango and asked. "You think we should ask them now?" Sango nodded. "Hey guys I have something to ask you."

"Yeah what is it?" Inuyasha asked.

"Sango has told me that I did something, but I can't remember what I did for some reason." She said a somewhat worried look on her face.

"Like what?" Inuyasha asked again.

"She told me that while I was fighting Sesshomaru that I used miko powers, but I have absolutely no recollection of doing so." She replied. "Do either of you have any idea why or did either of you see it too."

A look of remembrance came over Inuyasha's face. "I had completely forgotten about that."

"Yes me too." Miroku said. "With all the stuff going on I forgot to ask."

"So I do have miko powers then." She said. She seemed somewhat excited at the prospect of having them, but then a look of worry yet again came over her face. "But then why don't I remember anything about it."

Inuyasha shrugged. "No idea."

Miroku shook his head. "I don't know why either."

Kagome looked down. "It doesn't make much sense that I can't remember."

"Can you remember the fight?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah, everything." She replied.

"Even when you took Sesshomaru's arm?" She nodded. Miroku looked down in thought trying to think of anyway that she could've possibly forgotten. He thought for several minutes but came up with nothing. _If only I had an archive or something. _He thought.

"Maybe you hit your head." Inuyasha's voice brought Miroku out of his thoughts.

"What?" Kagome asked not hearing him.

"I said maybe you hit your head?" He said again.

Kagome touched the back of her head and felt a scab forming,and then felt it peel off. _Eww. _She thought. "Yes I did, but that was before I fought Sesshomaru."

"You know Inuyasha maybe right. Perhaps for some reason that despite that you hit your head before the battle it may have caused some after effects. Like say forgetting you used miko powers." Miroku said.

"But how?"

Miroku shrugged. "I don't know, but the mind is a powerful and weird thing. Who knows why you only forgot about the miko powers but nothing else."

Kagome thought about it for a moment. _He's probably right. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Hopefully that really was it and I don't have some weird disease that's causing me to lose my memory. _She smiled at the thought.

"I'm guessing that because you're smiling that you agree with my suggestion?" Inuyasha asked his eyes closing again.

"Yeah, it's the only thing that makes any sense." Kagome replied.

Inuyasha rolled on his side. "Good because I think I need to get some sleep."

"Okay. Night." Kagome said.

"You know I think it be best for us all to get some sleep." Miroku said. "We'll have to figure things out in the morning. Good night all."

"Night." Kagome replied. Sango nodded.

Kagome lay down and closed her eyes. "Night Sango."

"Night Kagome." Sango blew out the candles lighting the room before lying down and falling asleep.

**That is the end of this chapter and I apologize if it isn't all that great. The way I wrote it and put all of the things into it made me feel as though it wasn't all that great, but I suppose I should leave that up to you to decide. After all an author never things their work is good enough and that it can be better. Anyway I also realized I had changed a few things. I was reading some of my earlier chapters and realized I had said Sango's parents were dead and there were few demon hunters left, and now they are in Sango's village with her father. So oops. If any of you noticed that, or any other mistakes, then I apologize. Well I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as possible and not make some many unexpected changes. Until then bye.**


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